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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/throughsouthamer01zahm 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S 
SOUTHLAND 



Books by J. A. Zahm 
(H. J. Mozans) 

Through South America's 
Southland 

Up the Orinoco and Down 
the Magdalena 

Along the Andes and Down 
the Amazon 

Woman in Science 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

Publishers New York 



•- ,-r^r. ■ 




The Author and Colonel Roosevelt in the Brazilian Wilderness. 



FOLLOWING THE CON QU 1ST ADORES 

THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S 
SOUTHLAND 



WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ROOSEVELT 
SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AMERICA 



BY 



V 



THE REVEREND J/AfZAHM, C.S.C., Ph.D. 

(H. J. MOZANS) 

ADTHOB OP "UP THE ORINOCO AND DOWN THE MAGDALENA," "ALONG 

THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON," " THE QUEST OP 

EL DORADO," " WOMAN IN SCIENCE," ETC. 




SIXTY- FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK AND LONDON 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

19 16 



f Aj Ai 



1*7 

Si / / 



z 



Copyright, 1916, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



\o 



y 




Printed in the United States of America 




IN 

SANCTA • CRVCE 

PARI • NOBILI • FRATRVM 

REVERENDIS ■ DILECTISQVE 

IACOBO • ALOISIO ■ BVRNS 

AC 

IOANNI • GVLIELMO • CAVANAVGH 

HOC • OPVS 

AMICITI.E • TESTIMONIUM 

D D D • 



I have passed manye landes and manye yles and contrees, 
and cherched manye fulle straunge places, and have ben 
in manye a fulle gode honourable companye. Now I am 
comen home to reste. And thus recordynge the tyme 
passed, I have fulfilled these thynges and putte hem wryten 
in this boke, as it ivoulde come into my my tide. 

Sir John Maundeville. 



FOREWORD 

It is now three and thirty years since duty first led me to our 
sister republic of Mexico. The interest which I had previously 
felt in the achievements of the Conquistadores was greatly en- 
hanced by my sojourn among their descendants, in the valley of 
Anahuac, and has since continued to grow with the passing years. 

Since this first visit to Mexico, other duties coupled with special 
research in the religious, educational and social condition of the 
peoples of Latin America have led to my following in the foot- 
steps of the Conquistadores from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to 
the arid plains of Patagonia and from the source of the Amazon, 
in the Peruvian Cordillera, to its broad estuary four thousand 
miles distant. Thus, through a strange combination of circum- 
stances, I have been 

"A palmer, as ye se, 
Whiche of my lyfe much part have spent 
In many a fayre and farre cuntrie, 
As pilgrims do of good intent." 

An account of some of my long peregrinations has been given 
in my two previous books, "Up the Orinoco and Down the Mag- 
dalena" and "Along the Andes and Down the Amazon." 1 The 
present work completes the trilogy which I had in contemplation 
when, nearly a decade ago, I began the first volume of the series 
bearing the general title of "Following the Conquistadores." 

It was my good fortune, when about to start on my last journey 
to the southern continent, to be able to enlist Colonel Roosevelt's 
interest in the wilds of South America. In the first of the fol- 
lowing chapters I have given a brief account of the origin and 
organization of our expedition — an expedition which gradually 
developed from a small band into a large company of nearly 

1 Published under the pseudonym of H. J. Mozans. 

vii 



FOREWORD 

two score persons and which has since become known as " The 
Roosevelt Scientific Expedition to South America." 

The scientific results of this expedition have been given by my 
distinguished associate in his interesting work, "Through the 
Brazilian Wilderness." For this reason, I have in the present 
volume confined myself, almost entirely, to a narrative of the in- 
cidents of our journey and a description of the places which we 
visited together. In this, as in my preceding books on South 
America, I have had little to say of the material, political or 
economic conditions of the countries through which we journeyed. 
These subjects have frequently been discussed by statisticians and 
specialists. My interests have been rather in the history, the 
poetry and the romance of the places visited. For, with the ex- 
ception of Spain, the motherland of the great explorers of, and ad- 
venturers in so much of the Western Hemisphere, there is no land 
in the world which is so glamouring as that vast region which 
witnessed the brilliant feats of arms and the marvelous achieve- 
ments of a Cortes, a Quesada, a Pizarro, a Valdivia, an Alvar Nunez 
Cabeza de Vaca. Nor is there another land which easts such a 
spell on the traveler who has read the life story of these marvelous 
men whose ardent vitality and generous enthusiasm impelled them 
to undertake and to achieve what less courageous natures would 
have deemed impossible. 

They were indeed makers of history such as have been but few 
men in the annals of our race. For tear out from the chronicles 
of discovery the pages on which are recorded the epoch-making 
achievements of a Balboa, an Orellana, a Cabeza de Vaca and 
how much would you detract from Spanish fame and prestige? 
Blot out from history the names of the Conquistador es of Mexico, 
of New Granada, of Peru, of El Rio de la Plata, who have em- 
blazoned with such brilliant colors the armorial bearings of Castile 
and Leon, and how much would be wanting to the completeness 
of the glory of the land of Isabella and Saint Teresa, of Calderon 
and Lope de Vega? How is not the spirit stirred within one who 
reads the exultant proclamation of the proud discoverer of the 
Pacific: "I, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, for the royal crown of 
Castile do take possession of all these waters and shores, islands 
and firm land, and all therein, peoples and possessions, beasts, 
birds and fishes, gold and silver, pearls and precious stones, the 

viii 



FOREWORD 

same forever to defend." The glory of acquisition, the pride of 
possession, the assurance of humanity 's greatness, all are expressed 
in these thrilling words which enunciate not the vainglory of an 
individual but rather the power, the majesty, the supremacy of 
an empire on which the sun never sets. 

It was Cicero who declared that "to be in ignorance of what 
occurred before one's birth, is to live ever in a state of childhood." 
These words have always seemed to me to apply also to the unread 
traveler who visits those noted cities and scenes of South America 
which have been the theaters of some of the most chivalrous deeds 
and inspiriting episodes in the annals of discovery and conquest. 
The view of the great Roman orator is particularly pertinent 
when there is question of such historic cities as Bogota, Quito, 
Lima, Cuzco, Asuncion, and Santiago de Chile, or of such famous 
ruins as those of Pachacamac, Tiahuanaco and the Great Chimu. 
For the chief interest in these places centers not in their material 
evidences of wealth and power, but in the legends and traditions 
which have gathered about them and the atmosphere of romance 
and mystery in which they have been enveloped during so many 
centuries. 

To many Spanish America has been little more than a land of 
revolutions, of self-seeking caudillos, of Quixotic adventurers, of 
soulless tyrants, of 

"Cloaked shapes, the twanging of guitars, 
A rush of feet, and rapiers clashing," — 

a land in which every man, as Don Adriano de Arinado, in "Love's 

Labor's Lost," 

"Hath a mint of phrases in his brain, 
One whom the music of his own tongue 
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony." 

There was a time, no doubt, when this view expressed a 
modicum of truth. But this was during the long period of dis- 
order and anarchy which followed the separation of the colonies 
from the mother country ; while their inhabitants were slowly 
learning the art of self-government; while they were gradually 
enlisting the interest and seeking the cooperation of foreign capi- 
talists and foreign engineers for the development of the bound- 

ix 



FOREWORD 

less natural resources of soil and mine. With the advent of capital, 
the establishment of great steamship lines and the building of a 
network of railroads over vast areas, conditions have so changed 
for the better, that in some of the southern republics war and 
revolution are almost as rare as in our own country. 

One of the best guarantees of stable government in South 
America's Southland is the billions of dollars invested there by 
English, French and German capitalists. It is these billions that 
have contributed so materially not only towards the development 
of all kinds of industries but also towards the establishment of 
enduring peace. 

Another factor making for general tranquillity is the millions 
of immigrants who have nocked into this part of South America 
during the last half century. Most of these were sturdy, honest, 
peace-loving people of the laboring classes who had left the con- 
gested regions of Europe in order to establish a home for them- 
selves and children in the broad and fertile lands of Brazil, 
Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. Under the aegis of peace, they 
have prospered in a manner that would have been quite impossible 
in the land of their birth. Men who, but a few decades ago, landed 
in Buenos Aires with little more than the clothes they wore are 
now prominent in every department of trade and industry. 
Among them are not a few multi-millionaires — some of them of 
great business capacity and rare executive ability — just the kind 
of men needed for developing the great natural resources of the 
country of their adoption and for establishing its various indus- 
tries on a basis of assured success — present and future. 

But that which, more than anything else, impresses the traveler 
in South America — especially in the southern part of the conti- 
nent — is the remarkable fusion of races which is everywhere ob- 
servable. This, like foreign investments and heavy immigration 
from all parts of Europe, is likewise an agency making for peace 
and prosperity and is, probably, more potent and effective than 
any other force whatever. Here we find English, Germans, French, 
Italians, Russians, Poles, Swiss, Spaniards, Portuguese, Irish, 
Scandinavians, Turks, and representatives of divers other na- 
tionalities, all living and working together and all becoming loyal 
citizens in the country in which they have their house and hearth. 

The experiment of the blending of the nations in South Amer- 

x 



FOREWORD 

ica's Southland has not been unlike that in our own land. The 
literature and the men of many nations, of England, of France, 
of Italy, of Germany — not to speak of those of other lands — have 
gradually, but inevitably led to a modification of the original 
Spanish and Portuguese stock and to the evolution of new peoples 
with new ideals and new aspirations. This is particularly ob- 
servable in Argentina — the present great melting-pot of the Euro- 
pean races in South America. Here, as in our own country, these 
many and diverse elements are fused into one people — a people 
which, despite present differences and antagonisms of some of its 
constituents, will in a few generations be as distinctive and as 
united in purpose as any nation under the sun. 

And, as in the United States, the tongue of Milton and Shakes- 
peare and Newman is the common language of the republic, so, 
in the lands of the Conquistadores, is the majestic speech of Cer- 
vantes, Juan Varela and Luis de Leon — a speech declared by Charles 
V to be el idioma de los dioses — the language of the gods — the pre- 
vailing tongue. And notwithstanding the great flood of immi- 
grants that continue yearly to pour into the ports of Buenos Aires, 
Montevideo and Valparaiso, Spanish will continue to be in the 
future as in the past the language of what were once the great 
colonial possessions of the Spanish monarchs. 

That the era of revolutions in the southern part of South 
America is practically past; that the despotism of self-appointed 
caudillos is no longer to be feared; that pronunciamientos of am- 
bitious military chieftains are now rarely taken seriously is 
evinced not only by the rapid development of commerce and in- 
dustry, but also — and especially — by the attention which is every- 
where given to science and art and literature ; by the magnificent 
institutions of learning, the well-equipped laboratories, the at- 
tractive art galleries which grace all the large cities ; by the count- 
less historical, literary and scientific societies whose publications 
are prized by scholars the world over ; by the all-powerful press, 
as illustrated by the great dailies of Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires 
and Santiago de Chile. But the best assurance of stable govern- 
ment in South America's Southland is that the great majority of 
the people ardently desire peace and quickly resent actions and in- 
fluences that tend to disturb the tranquillity of their homes or im- 
pede the growth of the country in which they have staked their all. 

xi 



FOREWORD 

The character of the people in South America has, it is true, 
suffered an eclipse, but this is only temporary. Their dignity, 
their forcefulness, their independence, their desire to emulate the 
achievements of their forebears of the famed Iberian Peninsula, 
are beginning to assert themselves in a way that augurs well for 
the future and which promises great things for civilization and 
culture. The Latin peoples under the Southern Cross have never 
forgotten their noble lineage, or the achievements of their an- 
cestors when Spain and Portugal were the great world-powers; 
when their argosies were seen on every sea; when Isabella ruled 
and Saint Teresa penned her wonderful books; when Camoens 
sang and Cervantes delighted king and peasant; when Murillo 
and Velasquez produced their matchless canvases ; when Columbus 
and Vasco da Gama lifted the veils which had so long hung over 
the eastern and the western seas, and banished forever the terrors 
of the Sea of Darkness and the Cape of Storms; when the Con- 
quistadores, by chivalric deeds and matchless achievements, showed 
themselves the worthy successors of Bernardo del Carpio and El 
Cid Campeador. 

The spirit of Latin America may be likened to the waters of 
the Guadiana, which, after flowing for some distance underground, 
return again to the surface. Santa Teresa — that rarely gifted 
nun whose admirable works are among the classics of Spanish 
literature — tells of the vitality and potency of this spirit; of its 
ability to rise triumphant above all adversity and regain by noble 
achievements its once high estate, when in subtle verse she de- 
clares that 

Tiene tan divinas mafias 

Que en un tan aeerbo trance 

Sale triunfando del lance 

Obrando grandes hazafias. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Origin and Organization of Our Expedition ... 1 

II. In the Cradle of the Deep 15 

III. Brazil's Oldest Capital 31 

IV. South America's City Beautiful 47 

V. Among the Progressive Paulistas 83 

VI. In Semi-tropical Brazil 103 

VII. Uruguay and the Uruguayans 125 

VIII. Santa Maria de Buenos Aires 146 

IX. The Argentine Pampa 173 

X. Along the Southern Frontier of the Old Inca Empire 200 

XI. The Learned City 224 

XII. Famous Scenes and Victories 245 

XIII. Santiago del Nuevo Extremo 275 

XIV. In Famed Araucania 305 

XV. Myths and Marvels of Mountain, Lake and Plain . 331 

XVI. Motoring in Patagonia 365 

XVII. In Guaraniland 385 

XVIII. On the Storied Paraguay 414 

XIX. The Home of Birds and Palms 448 

XX. Journeying in the Jungle 472 

Bibliography 503 

Index 509 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Author and Colonel Roosevelt in the Brazilian Wilder- 
ness ......... Frontispiece ^ 

FACING PAGE 

The route followed by the Author through South America's 

Southland 

Bahia seen from the harbor ..... 

Largo Costa Alves. Bahia 

Guanabara Palace 

Avenida Beira Mar. Rio de Janeiro 

View of Rio de Janeiro and Guanabara Bay from summit of 

Corcovado ........ 

Museum of Ypiranga. Sao Paulo .... 

Ecclesiastical seminary. Sao Paulo 
Drying mate and preparing it for shipment . 

Porto Alegre . 

Harbor of Montevideo with the Cerro in the distance 
Cathedral of Montevideo ..... 

The Founding of Buenos Aires by Juan de Garay 
Museum of La Plata ...... 

Cathedral. Buenos Aires 

Tomb of San Martin in the Cathedral. Buenos Aires 
Estancia Pereyra Iraola near Buenos Aires . 
Harvesting Wheat in the Pampa 
Two rival payadores in a poetical tournament 

Gaucho homes 

Case de Independencia. Tucuman 

Native fruit market in western Argentina . 

Cathedral of Cordoba ...... 

Statue of Fray Fernando Trejo Sanabria in the court oi 

University, Cordoba ..... 

xv 



f the 



1< 


36 - 


36 1 


58 ■ 


58 


74 

86 


118 


118 


138 : 


138 


142 


142 


152 


152 


186 


186 ' 


194: 


194 


214 


214 


236 ' 



236 



iX 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Statue of Dean Fmies in Cordoba 

Cristo Redentor 

Vineyard near Mendoza . 

Santa Lucia 

Art Gallery. Santiago . 

Araucanian village . . 

Araucanian mother and child 

Araucanian woman carrying child in papoose frame 

Mount Osorno with Lake Llanquihue in the foreground 

Lago Frio with Tronador in the distance . 

Bariloche and Lake Nahuelhuapi . 

Transporting merchandise in Patagonia . 

Ruins of churches of the reductions of Paraguay 

Church at Can jo. Paraguay .... 

Falls of Iguazu 

Paraguayan lace-maker . . .. 
Country home in Paraguay . . . ' . 
Our cruiser Riquelme on the way to Corumba 

Toba family and rancho 

River front. Corumba 

Sigg, at the right, and a Corumba family 
Sisters of Maria Ausiliatrice teaching Bororos children 
Bororos Indians building a home for the Sisters of Maria 
Ausiliatrice .... 

The Nyoac on the Upper Paraguay . 
Our naturalists at work on the Nyoac 
Part of our camp at Porto do Campo 
Communities of troopials . 
Parasite-laden trees .... 

Palmares in inundated territory . 
Starting from Tapirapuhan 
The author and Colonel Roosevelt at Utiarity 
Breaking camp ... ... 

xvi 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Five o'clock tea in the jungle . 

Interior of Parecis home . 

Returning from the mandioca field 

Parecis musicians 

A Parecis woman as burden-bearer 

A game of headball . 

Utiarity Falls .... 

The author and some of his little Parecis friends 



FACING PAGE 

. 478 

. 484- 

. 484^ 

. 496 S 

. 496 • 

. 496 ' 

. 500 

. 500 



/ 



Note. — I am indebted to the courtesy of several of my associates in the 
expedition for the use of their photographs in making many of the illus- 
trations in this volume. 




iO° Longitude 70° West 60° from 50°Greenwich 40' 



Eoute Followed by the Author Through South America's 
Southland. 



THROUGH SOUTH 
AMERICAS SOUTHLAND 



CHAPTER I 

ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF OUR 
EXPEDITION 

No lover of wild nature can visit the equinoctial regions 
of South America without experiencing, sooner or later, 
an irresistible desire to return to these alluring lands of 
romance and enchantment. This is especially true, if one 
has come under the magic spell of the great forests of the 
interior of the continent and has had an opportunity of 
studying the wonderful fauna and flora which everywhere 
claim his attention. It matters not that one has to rough 
it and endure all manner of hardships. These drawbacks, 
far from deterring one from his undertaking, seem, on the 
contrary, to give it a peculiar zest which only those can 
appreciate who have been privileged to traverse the mar- 
velous regions that lie under tropical and sub-tropical 
skies. 

I can testify, as one having experience, to the en- 
thralling character of this particular kind of wanderlust. 
For it was my good fortune, some years ago, to journey 
through all the northern part of South America, to cross 
the Andes in many places between the Caribbean and Lake 
Titicaca, and to familiarize myself with the most salient 
features of the great waterways of the Amazon, the Mag- 
dalena and the Orinoco. I had, at times, to endure many 

1 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

privations, to live on short rations and in wretched tamhos, 
but all these discomforts were forgotten in the contempla- 
tion of the exuberant life of the tropics and in the impos- 
ing views of the Cordilleras. 

After a year of strenuous travel, mostly through the 
interior of the countries visited, I felt the need of rest and 
change of climate. But I had scarcely crossed the 
threshold of my home in the United States when I felt 
a longing to return to the land in which I had spent the 
most delightful period of my life. Even as I was sailing 
down the Amazon on my way homeward, I looked wistfully 
towards the south and resolved, if opportunity ever of- 
fered, to see as much of the great Paraguay as I had seen 
of its famous companions in the north, to compare the 
pampa of Argentina with the llanos of Colombia and Ven- 
ezuela, and the giant peaks of Tupungato and Aconcagua 
with Cotopaxi and Chimborazo — those towering giants of 
the Ecuaclorean Cordilleras. 

And then, too, I wished to continue in the footsteps of 
the Conquistadores. I had followed them through the 
extensive region drained by the Meta and the Apure, 
through the broad selva of Brazil and along the lofty 
plateau of the Andean range, and now I would fain trace 
their course up the wondrous Eio de La Plata, through 
El Gran Chaco and the desert stretches of Chile. I de- 
sired, particularly, to visit the lands rendered historic by 
the wanderings and achievements of Cabeza de Vaca, the 
immortal explorer and Governor of Paraguay, and Pedro 
de Valdivia, the conqueror of Chile. I had long years 
before followed in the footsteps of the former in his memo- 
rable peregrinations from Florida to Mexico and now I 
was eager to visit the scenes of his activities in Brazil, La 
Plata and Paraguay. I had many times crossed Valdivia 's 
path in Peru and Bolivia, and this but whetted my desire 
to behold the theater of his disastrous struggles with the 
indomitable Araucanian. Like the illustrious Gonsalo 

2 



ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF OUR EXPEDITION 

Ximenes de Quesada, the conqueror of New Granada and 
founder of Bogota, Cabeza de Vaca was, seemingly, a born 
wanderer, and one whose treatment by his sovereign was 
far from consonant with his deserts or with the brilliancy 
of his achievements. And like Francisco Pizarro, the con- 
queror of Peru, Valdivia was also a great military leader, 
but one who, after countless feats of heroism and deeds of 
glory, was fated, like his famous chief, to perish by the 
hands of his implacable enemies. And, like Quesada and 
Pizarro, Valdivia and Cabeza de Vaca are still waiting for 
the advent of a historian who will do full justice to their 
abilities as explorers and colonizers, as military leaders 
and statesmen. 

Part of my admiration for the heroes of Paraguay and 
Chile was, doubtless, due to my having traversed much of 
the ground that had witnessed the toils and hardships of 
their earlier career. For the knowledge gained by my long 
wanderings had enabled me fully to realize the magnitude 
of the difficulties which often confronted them in the hostile 
countries in which they so nobly served king and country. 
But it was the recognition of the splendid service which 
they had rendered during their apprenticeship as Conquis- 
tadores that contributed, more than anything else, to in- 
tensify my desire to familiarize myself with the famed 
campaigning-grounds of their maturer years. 

During my first visit to South America, I was, for the 
greater part of the time, virtually alone, having no com- 
panions but my escort, or such travelers as I happened to 
fall in with during the course of my journey. This was a 
great drawback, for it is impossible fully to enjoy the mag- 
nificent scenery of the tropics, or avail oneself of the 
rare opportunities for studying Nature in her most glorious 
manifestations, unless one has with him one or more con- 
genial companions who have an intelligent interest in the 
fauna and flora, as well as in the people with whom one is 
brought into daily contact. I resolved, therefore, if I 

3 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

should ever go to the interior of South America again, that 
I should not be without at least one companion who had 
not only an interest in the fascinating animal and plant life 
of the regions to be visited, but who had also made nature 
study a predominant part of his life-work. 

But where was I to find the kind of a companion desired 
— one who was not only a lover of wild nature but one 
who was also prepared to endure all the privations and 
hardships incident to travel in the uninhabited jungle? I 
had not, however, pondered the matter long before I be- 
thought me of a man who would be an ideal traveling com- 
panion, if he could find the necessary leisure, and could be^ 
induced to visit the southern continent. This man was 
Theodore Roosevelt, whose second term as President of 
the United States was just expiring. 

I accordingly called on him at the White House, as 
Colonel Roosevelt himself tells his readers in his delightful 
book, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness," and proposed 
to him that, when free from presidential cares, he and I 
should go up the Paraguay into the interior of South Amer- 
ica, During the course of my interview, as I have else- 
where written, I told the President of a journey I had just 
made into the wilds of our sister continent and of my 
delightful experiences among the Andes and in the valleys 
of the Orinoco and the Amazon. 

He was deeply interested in my observations and im- 
pressions, and inquired particularly about the fauna and 
the flora of the tropics, as well as about the inhabitants in, 
the interior of the great forest regions between the Atlantic 
and the Cordilleras and expressed the hope that he might 
eventually be able to undertake a journey that possessed 
for him so many and so varied attractions. 

One reason why I was desirous of having Colonel Roose- 
velt visit the interior of South America was because I felt 
that he, more effectually than anybody else, could direct 
attention to this little known part of the world as a region 

4 



ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF OUR EXPEDITION 

of paramount interest for explorers and men of science, 
especially American men of science. For, strange as it may 
seem, South America is still more of a terra incognita than 
darkest Africa, and many parts of it are today less known 
than they were three hundred years ago. Nowhere is there 
a richer field for the botanist, the zoologist, the geologist, 
the ethnologist, than the great selva of Brazil and the ex- 
tensive eastern versant of the Andes between the fertile 
plains of the Casanare and the forest-clad slopes of eastern 
Bolivia. Compared with the wonderful achievements of 
German explorers, our American men of science have ac- 
complished but little in the interior of the equinoctial re- 
gions ; and it seemed that if Mr. Eoosevelt could be induced 
to penetrate the little known territory of Matto Grosso and 
Amazonas, he would supply the necessary incentive to his 
fellow countrymen for devoting more time than previously 
to the exploration of the vast and unknown tracts drained 
by the waters of the Amazon and the Orinoco. 

But I had a stronger reason than the work that he might 
do as an explorer or a hunter-naturalist for wishing to see 
Colonel Eoosevelt visit South America. I felt that he, with 
his boundless energy and prestige, could do a certain much- 
needed missionary work there, that he could do more than 
all the diplomats of a century to dissipate the prejudices 
our southern neighbors have so long entertained respecting 
the United States, and allay the unfounded fears which 
have caused them so long to regard our ends and aims in 
the southern hemisphere with unfriendliness and distrust. 

During his seven years in the White House, Eoosevelt 
had always shown himself the true friend of South America, 
and had won the admiration and confidence of the great 
majority of her people. I had, during my wanderings in 
the three northern republics of the continent, found evi- 
dence of this everywhere — even in the most unlikely places. 

"Oh, if we could only have a man like your Eoosevelt in 
our poor, distracted country," said a prominent merchant 

5 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

to me in Caracas, "how soon Venezuela would be blessed 
with peace and prosperity. Castro is a plague, and we are 
everywhere struggling against poverty and graft, ground 
down by oppression and tyranny." 

"The best thing that could happen Colombia," a well- 
known general confided to me in a little town near Bogota, 
"would be to have Roosevelt as president. We need a man 
like him to put an end to the revolutions that are draining 
the life-blood of our country and to secure for us the place 
Nature designed for us among the nations of the world." 

"But what?" I inquired, "do you think of his action 
in Panama?" 

"What do I think of it? I think it is," he answered, 
' l the best thing he could have done for Colombia. Ours is 
the only republic of the southern continent that faces on 
both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and we shall, if we are 
wise, derive more benefit from the canal than any country 
in South America. The canal is practically a free gift to 
us, and Roosevelt should be regarded by all patriotic Co- 
lombians as a public benefactor." 

The opinion, so pithily expressed by this old soldier, 
was shared by many others of all classes with whom I 
discussed the Panama question in Colombia. Indeed, I do 
not recall a single instance, outside of a certain political 
entourage, in which Roosevelt was adversely criticised for 
this action in Panama. 

During my first visit to South America, many of her 
people were seriously concerned about the number of Japan- 
ese that were then wandering about the country. They 
were supposed to be army and naval officers in disguise, 
and all kinds of alarming reports were circulated regard- 
ing their ultimate designs. One of these was that Japan 
was looking for a naval base on the west coast of the con- 
tinent, or for the territory of some weak nation, which she 
might annex for the purpose of colonization. "We have 
no fear of having any of our country appropriated by the 

6 



ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF OUR EXPEDITION 

Mikado," declared a Peruvian army officer at a banquet 
given in my honor in a town in eastern Peru, ' ' for we know 
that Roosevelt," who was then president, "would never 
permit it. We know him to be a friend of Peru, and we 
know that he would uphold the Monroe Doctrine against 
any foreign power that would seek a foothold in South 
America." 

For a long time there had been friction between Peru 
and Ecuador regarding the boundary between the two 
countries. The great difficulty was to find an arbitrator 
who would be acceptable to both nations. Finally, Presi- 
dent Alfaro of Ecuador said to the representatives of Peru, 
"Get Roosevelt for arbitrator, and I will leave the bound- 
ary question between my country and Peru in his hands 
and abide by his decision." 

I give these illustrations — they might be indefinitely 
multiplied — of Roosevelt's popularity and prestige in the 
various South American republics to show that I was not 
unwarranted in my belief that the ex-President was the 
one man above all others who was best qualified to estab- 
lish more friendly relations than had previously existed 
between the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. 

So much interested was President Roosevelt in my ac- 
count of the South American wilderness and so strongly 
did my reasons for his undertaking the suggested journey 
appeal to him, "that had he not previously made all ar- 
rangements to go to the interior of Africa, he might have 
been prevailed on to visit South America in 1908, instead 
of six years later. ' ' 1 

Although it was not possible, for the reason named, for 
Colonel Roosevelt and myself to go to South America at 
the time indicated, the project was never abandoned. It 
was merely deferred. After the Colonel's return from 
Africa, the expedition was frequently discussed as some- 

1 Cf. "Eoosevelt and South American Opinion," in the American Beview 
of Beviews for July, 1914, pp. 81-86. 

7 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

thing we should both like to undertake, but a combination 
of circumstances always made it impossible. Months and 
years passed by and our fond dream of a journey together 
through the tropical jungle seemed no nearer realization 
than when it was first conceived. Colonel Roosevelt's mani- 
fold engagements made it impossible for him to leave the 
country long enough to make the contemplated trip, and 
nothing seemed to foreshadow the time when he would 
have the leisure necessary for the execution of our oft-con- 
sidered plans. 

Finally, as the possibility of Colonel Roosevelt's going 
to South America appeared to become daily more and 
more remote, I resolved to delay no longer an undertaking 
on which my heart had so long been set. I accordingly 
began to cast about for someone — preferably a naturalist — 
to accompany me, for I had realized as never before dur- 
ing my previous wanderings through South America, how 
much a companion of this kind would contribute to the 
pleasure and profit of such a journey. It occurred to me 
that Mr. Frank Chapman, the distinguished bird-curator of 
the New York Museum of Natural History, would be able 
to recommend such a man as I was in quest of and I, accord- 
ingly, lost no time in calling on him. This was the latter 
part of June, 1913. I told Mr. Chapman that I was look- 
ing for a first-class field ornithologist", who could speak 
Spanish well and who was familiar with the birds of South 
America. 

"I know just the man you are seeking," he replied, 
* ' and I shall be glad to put you in communication with him. 
He has been collecting birds in tropical America for nearly 
twenty years and has done much work for our Museum and 
for many others as well. He speaks Spanish like a native, 
is accustomed to roughing it, and is, besides, a capital 
traveling companion. His name is George K. Cherrie and 
his address is Newfane, Vermont. But I am not sure that 
he is free just now, or inclined to leave home, for he has 



ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF OUR EXPEDITION 

been so long away from his family, that he may not wish 
to return to South America at the present time. Still, we 
can soon find what his pleasure is in the matter. ' ' 

Having thus found a prospective companion of the kind 
I had in mind, I told Mr. Chapman that I was going to call 
on Colonel Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, and inform him of 
the arrangements I was making for my long-contemplated 
trip to South America. I had no hope that the Colonel 
would finally be able to go to South America, but I knew 
he would be interested in hearing of my plans for the 
journey. 

"You may save yourself the trip to Oyster Bay, if you 
have anything else to do," said Mr. Chapman, "for Colonel 
Roosevelt is going to take luncheon with me here tomorrow 
and I shall be glad to have you join us." 

I accepted his kind invitation, and the following day, 
at the appointed hour, I was in the dining-room of the 
Museum of Natural History, where I found quite a, num- 
ber of men of science, most of whom were members of the 
Museum staff. Soon Colonel Roosevelt appeared, and, 
greeting me in the most cordial manner, he exclaimed, ' ' By 
George ! You here ! You are the very man I wish to see. 
I was just about to write you to inform you that I think I 
shall, at last, be able to take that long-talked-of trip to 
South America. I have received, through the Argentine 
Minister in Washington, an invitation from the Museo 
Social in Buenos Aires to lecture before it on Progressive 
Democracy, and I am disposed to accept it. I shall let 
you know my decision in a few days." 

This was certainly a most agreeable surprise. At the 
time it was, indeed, about the last thing I thought likely. 
It seemed almost too good to be true, and I eagerly awaited 
the Colonel's promised letter advising me what he pur- 
posed doing. 

Two clays later I had his answer and, to my great de- 
light, it conveyed the gratifying news that he had accepted 

9 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the invitation to lecture in Argentina, and that he would 
probably also speak in Brazil, Chile and elsewhere. I felt 
now that the work which I had so longed to see the Colonel 
undertake was about to be realized and under auspices, 
moreover, which were far more favorable than I could have 
dared to hope for under ordinary conditions. 

"Instead of taking a trip through the heart of the con- 
tinent, as we had previously planned — devoting most of 
our time to a study of the geographic features of the various 
countries which we purposed visiting — the Colonel's sphere 
of action was, in a quite unexpected manner, immensely 
enlarged, and he was given an opportunity of meeting and 
becoming acquainted with the leading representatives of 
all the countries through which he passed, from Patagonia 
to the Equator. ' ' 1 

After the expedition was at last agreed on, there was 
no time to be lost. The Colonel's Brazilian lectures were 
to be delivered the latter part of October, and it was neces- 
sary for us to sail from New York on the steamer leaving 
the fourth of that month, at the latest. The matter of 
equipment required time, for we resolved to take with us 
everything we should need in the wilderness. This, I had 
learned from my previous travels in the interior, would be 
both cheaper and more satisfactory. 

But one of the first things to make sure of was the 
services of Cherrie as our ornithologist. I had not had 
time to get into communication with him before I learned 
of Colonel Roosevelt's determination to go to South Amer- 
ica. Mr. Chapman and I accordingly called on the Colonel 
in his Outlook office to discuss the matter, and he at once 
agreed that Cherrie should accompany us, if he were free 
to do so. Shortly afterwards we were both gratified to 
learn that he had accepted our invitation and was to be one 
of our party. The first time, however, that I had the pleas- 
ure of meeting him was on our steamer, just as she was 

1 The American Review of Reviews, ut. sup. p. 82. 

10 



ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF OUR EXPEDITION 

slipping her moorings preparatory to taking her long voy- 
age to Buenos Aires. He barely escaped being too late to 
board the vessel. 

Our preliminary plans contemplated, as a part of our 
itinerary, the ascent of the Paraguay and the descent of 
the Tapajos, one of the great affluents of the Amazon. In- 
stead of navigating the latter river in the ordinary dugout 
employed by the natives of Brazil, we decided to take with 
us a certain number of specially made, light-draft canoes, 
which would be ample for carrying not only the members 
of our party, but also our provisions and equipment. This 
would insure more comfort and greater safety and would, 
besides, obviate the interminable delays that are always 
incident to travel in the wilderness where food and the 
means of transportation are necessarily limited and diffi- 
cult — at times impossible — to procure. 

As Colonel Roosevelt had arranged to spend the months 
of July and August on a hunting expedition in the wilds 
of Arizona, the task of making all the necessary prepara- 
tions for the long and arduous journey before us devolved 
on me. Fortunately, however, my responsibility in this 
matter did not last long. For I had no sooner begun to look 
after the equipment required for the expedition than I fell 
in with Mr. Anthony Fiala, the noted Arctic explorer. He 
was then in charge of the sporting goods department of the 
Rogers Peet Company, New York, and it was to him I went 
to secure a part of our equipage. Fiala at once became 
intensely interested in our undertaking, and, before our 
first interview was terminated, he declared, "I would give 
anything in the world to go with you." "Come along," I 
said, "I am sure Colonel Roosevelt will be glad to have you 
as a member of the expedition." 

It was not long before it was arranged for the ex- 
Arctic explorer to accompany us. To no one was his acces- 
sion to our party more gratifying than to myself, for it 
relieved me of most of the detail work of the commissariat. 

11 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

For Fiala, in addition to his long experience in such work 
in the polar regions, had been, for some years, quarter- 
master-general in a New York regiment of volunteers. He 
was, therefore, promptly installed as the commissary of 
our expedition. A better man, as subsequent events proved, 
could hardly have been found for our purpose. Thencefor- 
ward I had little more to do with the outfitting of the 
expedition than to tell Fiala what my experience in the 
tropics had taught me was necessary for our undertaking, 
and everything was attended to with rare intelligence and 
dispatch. 

Some weeks after Mr. Fiala had become one of our 
number, I received a letter from Mr. Chapman stating that 
he would like, if agreeable to Colonel Eoosevelt and my- 
self, to have Mr. Leo Miller join our party. Mr. Miller, 
like Mr. Cherrie, had done very successful work in South 
America for the Museum of Natural History, but, unlike 
Cherrie, his specialty was not ornithology but mammalogy. 
I replied at once that I should be delighted to have Mr. 
Miller go with us and felt sure that Colonel Roosevelt 
would also welcome him as a member of our band. 

The expedition thus gradually began to assume propor- 
tions that no one dreamed of in the beginning and the 
amount of work which it seemed destined to accomplish 
loomed large as the day of our departure rapidly ap- 
proached. 

We had now three men among our number who were 
experts each in his special department, and who could, 
furthermore, if called upon, turn their hands to almost 
anything else from caulking a canoe to preparing an ap- 
petizing meal. All three were good photographers and we 
were thus sure of securing a valuable supply of photo- 
graphs, as well as a large collection of specimens of natural 
history. Fiala, in addition to his duties as commissary, 
was made the official photographer of the expedition, and 
was provided not only with a number of excellent cameras 

12 



ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF OUR EXPEDITION 

for ordinary photographs, but also with two instruments 
for taking moving pictures. 

But it was soon realized that, if the best results were to 
be obtained, these three men should always be free to de- 
vote themselves entirely to their own particular line of 
work. Someone, therefore, had to be secured to look after 
our cuisine. This, as all travelers in the jungle are aware, 
is of the utmost importance, not only in the matter of sav- 
ing time, but also in the comfort it guarantees to every 
member of the expedition. 

Luckily, such a man as we needed was found at the 
eleventh hour. Mr. Jacob Sigg, a Swiss in the prime of 
life, hearing of our expedition, called upon me and asked 
me if we did not wish to have ' ' a handy-man ' ' among our 
number. After examining his credentials and asking him 
a few questions, I discovered he was just the man that we 
needed to complete our personnel. Colonel Eoosevelt 
agreed with me in this, and "Sigg," as he was thence- 
forward known, became a member of the expedition only 
a few hours before we sailed for South America. 

As a handy-man, Sigg was absolutely unique, and it 
would have been quite impossible to have found a man 
who would have better answered our purpose, or would 
have, as we found later, rendered us more intelligent and 
willing service. 

He had had quite a checkered career and an experience 
such as befalls but few men of his years. He was a gradu- 
ate army cook and nurse, in both of which capacities he 
was an expert. Before entering the army, he had served 
in Europe as a courier and interpreter for an Indian 
princess, had sailed before the mast in many parts of the 
world, had mined for gold on the eastern slopes of the 
Andes, and had had charge of a gang of men in the con- 
struction of a railroad in Bolivia. In his youth, he was 
for a while chief engineer in an electric power plant, and 
later on he was employed in operating steam engines in 

13 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Manitoba. He could drive an automobile and handle a 
motor boat as well as anybody, and was also skilled in the 
use of firearms, to which he had been trained from his 
earliest boyhood. He was, besides, an accomplished linguist 
and his knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese enabled him 
to render invaluable service to a part of the expedition, 
especially during its earlier stages. And with all these 
qualifications, he was brave and trustworthy, devoted and 
ready for any emergency, from extracting an ulcerated 
tooth and amputating a crushed finger to making an an- 
chor for a disabled launch. He was, indeed, in the true 
sense of the word a handy-man, and withal a great favorite 
with everyone. If I were to go again to the jungle, the first 
man I should call for would be good, loyal, generous Jacob 
Sigg. 

Besides the foregoing American members of our party, 
there was Mr. Frank Harper, Colonel Roosevelt's private 
secretary. At first, it was arranged for him to return to 
New York after his chief had finished his lectures in Ar- 
gentina, Chile and elsewhere, but before we arrived at Rio 
he was enrolled among the expeditioners, and proved to be 
not only an active and interested associate but also a jolly 
good fellow as well. 

At last everything was ready for our departure. Our 
provisions and equipment were aboard, although both Fiala 
and I had great difficulty in having some of the goods deliv- 
ered in time. Indeed, it was only by the constant use of the 
telephone and telegraph that we finally succeeded in hav- 
ing, at the last moment, all our equipage safely deposited 
in the hold of our steamer. The time allowed our outfitters 
to get ready all we required had been very limited, and had 
they not shown the greatest goodwill, as well as a special 
interest in our expedition, we should have been obliged to 
depart minus many of the most important items of our 
equipment. 



CHAPTER II 
IN THE CEADLE OF THE DEEP 

A happy and a merry party it was that crowded the 
spacious decks of the good ship Vandyke on the bright and 
cheerful morning of October 4, 1913, as she was about to 
leave her berth in the East River for her long voyage be- 
yond the Equator. A vast throng had assembled on the 
surrounding docks and streets to say farewell to the de- 
parting travelers. Conspicuous among these was a special 
delegation, with blaring band and flying banners, of the 
Progressive Party to bid Godspeed to their smiling chief 
who had, the previous night, been the recipient of a demon- 
stration of confidence and affection such as few men had 
ever been honored with, and which revealed, more elo- 
quently than words, the place he held in the hearts of his 
countrymen. 

Among the passengers were representatives of many 
nationalities. Some were going to South America on busi- 
ness, some were on pleasure bent, while others were return- 
ing to their homes under the Southern Cross. All were in 
high spirits and were looking forward to a delightful 
month's voyage on the azure ocean wave, under a sky that 
is 

"Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue." 

But I venture to say that the most happy and interested 
group aboard was that which, shortly before, at a meet- 
ing of some of our party at the Harvard Club, had been 
christened ''The Roosevelt South American Scientific Ex- 
pedition." All were dominated by the magic of a single 

15 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

thought and were already looking forward, with fond ex- 
pectancy, to unwonted achievements in equatorial jungles. 

They had scarcely been located in their staterooms when 
they were to be seen engrossed with their books and scien- 
tific apparatus preparatory to the more active work they 
were to do on their arrival at the scene of their future 
labors. Each one had a small but select library. Most of 
the works were of a scientific character and dealt with the 
animals and savage tribes of the countries which we were 
to traverse. Among these were recent memoirs as well as 
the larger and older classical studies on South America. 
But literary and historical works were not wanting and 
nothing was more remarkable than the character and 
variety of the volumes which an examination of our book 
kits disclosed. There was something for every taste, from 
the latest Spanish or Portuguese novel to the ' ' Chanson de 
Boland," and the " Nibelungenlied, " from the "Divina 
Commedia," and the "Os Lusiadas" of Camoens to the 
"Autobiography of St. Teresa" and the "Soliloquia" of 
St. Augustine. 

Although it was rare to find a member of our party 
without a book in his hand, "the Colonel," as we always 
called the leader of our expedition, was, by all odds, the 
one who read most. Except when dictating to his secre- 
tary, or taking an occasional stroll on deck and discussing 
with us our future work in the South American wilderness, 
he seemed to spend all his waking hours in reading. And 
his taste for literature was absolutely omnivorous. He 
would sometimes, while he was on the steamer and master 
of his time, devour two or three volumes a day, each on a 
different subject. 

He did not merely glance at the pages, as one might sup- 
pose, but read them in such wise that he could give an 
accurate account of their contents. He seems to have the 
faculty possessed by few men — Gustave Dore and Robert 
Houdin were instances — of making a snapshot of a page 

16 



IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP 

with his eye and of mastering its subject-matter with equal 
rapidity. 

" Reading with me is a disease,'' Roosevelt often told 
me, when I expressed surprise, as I often did, at his reading 
so constantly and, often, under such unfavorable circum- 
stances. If it be a disease, it is certainly one that does no 
harm to the patient, and one, I fancy, with which most sane 
people would like to be inoculated. It is regrettable, in- 
deed, that it is neither contagious nor infectious, for I can 
conceive of few things that would be productive of more 
good, or conducive to more pleasure to the world at large, 
than the prevalence, among all classes, of the kind of read- 
ing disease of which Theodore Roosevelt has been the will- 
ing and happy victim. 

Few people can engage in serious reading directly after 
meals, without experiencing evil effects. The subject of 
our sketch, however, can read immediately after a hearty 
dinner quite as well as before, and suffer no discomfort 
from so doing. His brain and stomach do not seem to be 
correlated, as in ordinary mortals. On the contrary, both 
organs appear to be adapted to work simultaneously at 
high pressure and with no appreciable injury to either the 
one or the other. Working brain and stomach together, 
as severely as Theodore Roosevelt does, would for most 
people, end in chronic dyspepsia, if not something worse. 

Roosevelt's concentration of mind when reading is 
quite as remarkable as his ability to read, at any and all 
times, without inconvenience or discomfort. When really 
interested in a book, he seems to be absolutely dead, for the 
time being, to all the rest of the world. Noise does not 
affect him in the least. He can sit in the midst of a talk- 
ing, shouting crowd and be totally oblivious of, and in- 
sensible to, everything but the contents of the volume in 
his hands. 

The two of our party who devoted the least time to 
books were probably Harper and Fiala. The former had 

17 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

become, just before leaving New York, the proud possessor 
of an extra fine kodak, and lie lost no time in using it. He 
had never taken pictures before, but he entered at once 
into the fascinating pastime with all the ardor of a con- 
firmed amateur. He found in our official photographer, 
Mr. Fiala, an able and willing teacher. When not handling 
the keys of the typewriter, he was usually seen with his 
camera on the lookout for views worth preserving. His 
progress in the art was so rapid that he was soon able to 
make as good pictures as many professionals, and not a 
few of the best photographs used for illustrating Colonel 
Eoosevelt's magazine articles were due to the skill and 
artistic sense of Mr. Frank Harper. 

As for Fiala, most of his time was spent on astronomical 
instruments. Since his last voyage to the arctic regions 
he had had no practice in the use of such apparatus, and 
he wished as he expressed it, ' ' to recover the knack of using 
the sextant and theodolite without undue loss of time." 
Accordingly, he was found every day, with the officers of 
the ship, taking observations of the sun and stars, and 
determining by the nautical almanac and a delicate chro- 
nometer the latitude and longitude of our position on the 
ocean. For, besides being our chief commissary — Sigg was 
drafted as assistant — and official photographer, Fiala was 
delegated to make all the astronomical observations re- 
quired during the course of our long wanderings through 
the wilderness. 

Naturally, the chief subject of conversation, on our way 
from New York to Rio de Janeiro, was our expedition. 
It was upon the tapis every time we met at table and fre- 
quently during the day on the promenade deck and else- 
where. It was then that we were wont to give the con- 
clusions we had drawn from our readings on South Amer- 
ica, and make known ideas that had occurred to us which 
might contribute to the success of our enterprise. While 
one was reading about the birds of the Paraguayan basin, 

18 



IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP 

another was devoting himself to the distribution of mam- 
mals in the La Plata region, while still another was ab- 
sorbed in the histories of the countries which we intended 
traversing or exploring. 

When we came to communicate the results of our read- 
ing, or to exchange views on any particular subject of gen- 
eral interest to the members of the expedition, Colonel 
Eoosevelt always took a prominent part in the discussion 
that followed. It was then that we were often amazed by 
his broad and exact knowledge not only of the fauna of 
the countries we were about to visit, but also of the politi- 
cal and social histories of their peoples as well. 

Five days after leaving New York, we were sailing 
along the leeward coast of the beautiful crescentiform 
group of the Caribees, so called because they were formerly 
inhabited by Carib Indians, who, Columbus thought, were 
cannibals. Usually the route of the company's steamers is 
farther east, but we were specially favored and by taking 
a more westerly course were able to get a good view of the 
most important islands of this remarkable cluster. The 
weather was ideal and we were able to coast so near the 
various islands that we could distinctly discern not only the 
towns and plantations that bedecked their shore, but also 
the tiny white cottages which dotted the hills and mountain 
flanks. 

The higher mountains, many of them of volcanic origin 
and several thousand feet high, were very imposing and, 
looming up directly from the ocean bed, they seemed much 
higher than they were in reality. In many instances, they 
were covered from base to summit with the most luxuriant 
tropical vegetation and forest growth which were in marked 
contrast with the silver breakers and amber-fretted strands 
which marked the dividing line between sea and land. 

Although I have sailed on the West Indian seas in every 
direction and in every season of the year, I have never 
encountered any of those terrific hurricanes which so fre- 

19 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

quently sweep over these waters and carry death and dev- 
astation in their path. It was, on the contrary, always my 
good fortune to find fair weather and a tranquil sea, and 
to be able to enjoy all the beauties of land and water which 
here meet the eyes of the delighted voyager. But never 
before did I find wind and wave so propitious as during this 
trip, and never were the vistas of green-carpeted planta- 
tions and forest-clad mountains more radiant, or more en- 
trancing. Nature everywhere seemed to be at her best 
and loveliest, and every prospect was a picture worthy of 
the graphic pen of a Byron or a Shelley, or of the magic 
brush of a Claude or a Turner. And of each picture Erin's 
bard, Thomas Moore, could well have written what he 
penned of "the scenery fair" that lay beneath his window 
in the Bermudas, where he abode for awhile in the begin- 
ning of the last century : 

You'd think that Nature lavished there 
Her purest wave, her softest skies, 
To make a heaven for love to sigh in, 
For bards to live and saints to die in. 

"While passing Martinique and St. Vincent, we caught a 
glimpse of the two most destructive volcanoes of the West- 
ern Hemisphere — Mont Pelee and the Soufriere. It was 
the terrific eruption of Mont Pelee on the fateful ninth of 
May, 1902, that wiped out of existence the flourishing city 
of Saint Pierre and exterminated thirty thousand people 
within the space of thirty seconds, and occasioned, at the 
same time, a property loss of a hundred million dollars. 

No islands of the New World have been theaters of 
more stirring romances or more appalling tragedies than 
those of the Caribbean Sea, and none have witnessed 
greater reverses of fortune or more frequent changes of 
flags and rulers. For this reason no one interested in the 
story of American discovery can sail these waters and con- 

20 



IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP 

template their emerald isles without harking back to earlier 
days and being thrilled by the deeds of valor which were 
here enacted. 

First and foremost cruising these waters is the com- 
manding figure of Columbus, the immortal "Admiral of 
the Ocean Sea," who hoped to reach the rich lands of India 
by sailing towards the setting sun, and who thought, till 
the day of his death, that he had actually discovered in 
this part of the world the dominions of the Great Kahn. 
The solution of the baffling "Mystery of the Strait," which 
engaged the last years of his eventful life, was not to be 
effected until more than four centuries after his demise, 
and then by means undreamed of by him and by a nation 
still unborn. 

Quickly following in his wake were the Conquistadores, 
those extraordinary men of blood and iron who have left an 
indelible impress on the New World from Florida to South- 
ern Chile. Among these, most noted for their achievements 
were Hernan Cortes, Gonsalo Ximenes de Quesada and 
Francisco Pizarro, the Conquerors of the Aztecs, the Muis- 
cas, and the Incas — three men who, by sheer -force of genius 
and daring, made their sovereign the ruler of the greatest 
empire under the sun. 

And here, too, was the scene of operations of those 
famous buccaneers — "Brethren of the Coast" — who preyed 
on Spanish commerce, sacked Spanish towns and cities, 
and, under cover of secret havens, lay in wait for the 
richly laden galleons that were conveying the treasures of 
Mexico and Peru to San Lucar and Cadiz. But not only 
was this the favorite cruising ground for such freebooters 
as Drake and Mansvelt and Morgan, but here also were the 
favorite haunts of those dread successors of the buccaneers 
— the pirates and corsairs whose depredations respected 
no flag — who were treated as outlaws not only by Spain but 
also by all other nations as well. Here also were the battle 
grounds of the English, Dutch, French and Danes, who, 

21 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

after they had long warred against Spain as against a 
common enemy, turned their arms against one another in 
their struggles for spoil and territory, and made the tow- 
ering cliffs of these parts echo the roar of artillery for 
many long decades. 

But the Caribbean Sea and islands recall more than the 
exploits of famous navigators, conquistadores and fili- 
busters. This was particularly impressed on our minds as 
we passed the little islands of Nevis and St. Eustatius. 

Looking at Nevis today, inhabited chiefly by indolent 
and ignorant Negroes, one would scarcely think of it as the 
birthplace of one of our most distinguished statesmen. And 
yet it was here that Alexander Hamilton was born. It was 
here that he spent the first eleven years of his life. It was 
here, too, that Horatio Nelson, the hero of the Nile and 
Trafalgar, found a wife in the person of a widow, Frances 
Herbert Nisbet. 

More interesting still to Americans is the island of 
St. Eustatius, more commonly known as Statia. For it was 
here, according to tradition, that an American vessel, flying 
a distinctive flag, was first honored with a salute. The 
name of the vessel was the Andrew Doria, a privateer from 
Baltimore, which had called at the little Dutch island for 
supplies. The doughty old Governor, Johannes de Graaff, 
was the one who ordered the salute to be fired. This was 
in November, 1776. The flag is said to have had thirteen 
stripes of red, white and blue colors, but without the starry 
canton which distinguishes our present national emblem. 

Shortly after leaving St. Eustatius, we found ourselves 
in the dark green waters that wash the leeward coast of 
Dominica. They had a special fascination for us, for they 
had witnessed, more than a century ago, the celebrated 
naval battle between Rodney and De Grasse — one of the 
greatest and most decisive sea fights in history. This spot 
has, indeed, well been called England's Salamis, for it was 
Rodney's remarkable victory here over the French fleet 

22 



IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP 

that not only established English supremacy in the West 
Indies but also saved the British Empire. 

Martinique, too, possessed a special attraction for us, 
for it was the early home of Josephine, the beautiful Creole 
who became the consort of the first Napoleon. Fronting 
the entrance of the harbor of Fort de France is a superb 
white marble statue of the empress, which was presented 
to the city by her nephew, Napoleon III. The face of the 
empress is turned toward her birthplace — Trois Ilets — 
about five miles distant, where in an upper room of a sugar- 
mill she spent the first decade of her life. What a contrast 
between her retired life in this humble sucrerie, as the plain 
daughter of a sugar planter, and the high destiny to which 
she was subsequently called in the magnificent palaces of 
the Tuileries and the Luxembourg, where she was the idol- 
ized and the adulated consort of the most powerful monarch 
in Christendom! 

Our first port of call on our southeastward course — for 
South America is east as well as south of the United 
States — was Bridgetown, Barbados. Dropping anchor in 
the roadstead of this interesting capital of "Little Eng- 
land, ' ' as the Barbadians love to call their diminutive coral 
island, we went ashore a few hours as the guest of the 
governor, whose hospitality was most cordial and gracious. 
After visiting some of the most interesting parts of the 
island, we were invited to luncheon in Government House 
where we met several of the most distinguished people of 
the colony. 

To myself, personally, this brief stop in Barbados was 
particularly agreeable, as I had, several years before, spent 
several weeks here for much needed repose after a long 
and strenuous journey across South America from Lima to 
Para. During the winter season, no more restful spot can 
be found. The temperature is then most equable and the 
weather always delightful. For this reason it has long been 
favorably known as a health resort. It is visited by large 

22 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

numbers of people not only from England and the United 
States but also from the tropical regions of South America. 

For Americans, Barbados possesses a peculiar interest, 
as it was the only foreign land which George Washington, 
then a major in the British Army, ever visited. "When 
about twenty years of age, he accompanied to this place 
his brother, Major Lawrence Washington — then far gone 
in consumption — who had served as captain under Admiral 
Vernon in the famous expedition against Cartagena in 
1740. It was in honor of this old admiral that Major 
Washington named his possessions on the Potomac, Mount 
Vernon — an estate which, before his death, he devised to 
his brother, George, and which in after years became the 
home of "the Father of his Country." While enjoying the 
courteous hospitality of the good people of Barbados, I 
recalled an entry made by Washington in a journal which 
he kept while in the island and which is as true today as 
when it was first penned: "Hospitality and genteel be- 
havior is shown to every gentleman stranger by the in- 
habitants. ' ' 

Another distinguished foreigner also came hither — al- 
most the last man in the world one would expect to find 
so far from the land of his birth. This was no less a 
personage than Fernando Paleologus, a descendant of the 
Greek emperor and a scion of the great family of the Con- 
stantines. When the Crescent triumphed over the Cross in 
Constantinople, some of the Paleoligi sought refuge in 
England, and thus it happened that Fernando eventually 
found his way to Barbados, where, for nearly thirty years, 
he made his home. Here he died, and his last resting 
place is on a lofty cliff on the eastern shore of the island, 
where, with his face to the east, he awaits, to use his dying 
words, "the joyful resurrection of the just, to eternal life." 

It was at Bridgetown that our Mr. Leo Miller, on in- 
structions from New York, joined our party. He had been, 
as before stated, selected as our mammalogist, and, as his 

24 



IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP 

work soon demonstrated, we conld not have selected a 
better man. He had just come from British Guiana, where 
he had made an interesting collection of specimens for the 
New York Museum of Natural History. Before that he 
had done notable work for the same institution in Vene- 
zuela and Colombia, especially in the neighborhood of the 
Upper Orinoco and the Caqueta. An enthusiastic and tire- 
less naturalist, he contributed fully his share to the success 
of the expedition. 

After leaving Barbados, our course was still more east- 
ward than it had previously been. We continued to have 
delightful weather and glided along merrily through the 
placid sea on an even keel. Many of the passengers 
dreaded the approach to the equator, because of their 
unwarranted apprehension of unbearable heat in this part 
of the world. Imagine their surprise on finding the tem- 
perature, as they crossed the equinoctial line, not higher 
but lower than it had been when they passed the tropic of 
Cancer. So cool, indeed, was it that some of the ladies were 
observed to call for light wraps on the evening of the day 
that we entered the southern hemisphere. 

There is, however, a very marked difference between the 
temperatures at the equator on the eastern and western 
sides of the continent. On the west coast the thermometer 
falls far lower than it ever does on the east coast under the 
line, and, at times, one must wear heavy clothing in order 
to be comfortable. This is owing to the Humboldt Current, 
which flows from the antarctic regions and which very ma- 
terially diminishes the temperature of the waters of that 
part of the Pacific which washes the coasts of Chile and 
Peru. Along the east coast, on the contrary, both sea and 
land are affected by the warm trade-winds that sweep 
across the Atlantic from the torrid zone of Africa, and, as 
a result, the degrees of temperature at corresponding lati- 
tudes, on opposite sides of the continent, are usually quite 
widely separated. But never, even when the mercury 

25 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

mounts highest, is the heat at the equator anything like it 
was conceived to be by Aristotle and Pliny. For according 
to these writers and their followers for the succeeding two 
thousand years, the northern and southern hemispheres 
were forever separated from each other by an impassable 
burning zone which was absolutely devoid of every form 
of animal and vegetable life. 

From time immemorial it has been the custom of sea- 
faring men to put through a peculiar form of initiation 
those who cross the equator for the first time. The process 
is, usually, far from agreeable to the victims of the sport, 
but most of those who submit to it do so with good grace. 
On our ship special preparations were made for this inter- 
esting event, and all eagerly awaited its coming — not that 
anyone was particularly eager himself to be shaved and 
ducked by the sailors in charge of the ceremony, but be- 
cause each and every one was glad to take part in some- 
thing to break the routine of a voyage which, by reason of 
its length, was gradually becoming monotonous. Some, it 
is true, entered into the sport with more zest than others 
and yielded quite willingly to the pranks of the marine bar- 
bers who, after covering their victims with powder and 
paste, cast them into an adjoining tank of sea water. After 
this rather forcible immersion, which afforded great amuse- 
ment to the spectators, the initiated were considered ''Sons 
of Neptune." Even the fact of crossing the line makes one 
a son of the sea-god and entitles him to assist in the initia- 
tion of others, without ever being again subject to the 
process himself. 

As for myself, the crossing of the line recalled many 
events of transcendent importance in early South Ameri- 
can history. Standing on the starboard deck I gazed to- 
wards the setting sun, and far in the distant west I beheld 
in fancy the mighty Amazon coursing from the far-off 
Cordilleras and bringing its rich tribute of waters to the 
broad and deep Atlantic. It was down this greatest of the 

26 



IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP 

world's waterways that the daring Orellana and his gal- 
lant companions guided a frail bark of their own construc- 
tion, and by so doing startled the world by a discovery 
which the historian Oviedo characterized as, una de las 
mayores cosas que han acontecido a los hombres — one of 
the greatest things that have befallen mankind. 1 Only one 
who has followed in Orellana 's wake, and who calls to mind 
the meagerness of his equipment, can fully appreciate the 
marvelous character of this long and eventful voyage down 
an unknown river, through a hostile country, deprived not 
only of chart and compass, but also of the most necessary 
means of subsistence. It is not without reason that in 
intrepidity of action, fertility of resource, and perseverance 
in the face of untold difficulties this enterprise has been 
ranked with the epoch-making achievement of Colum- 
bus. 

Poetic justice seems to require that the majestic river 
which was first navigated by the dauntless Spanish ex- 
plorer should still retain its early appellation — Eio Orel- 
lana — and not the triple and confusing name — Maraiion- 
Solimoes-Amazon — which it now bears. But it is probably 
expecting too much to see justice accorded to Orellana, 
when it has been denied to the illustrious discoverer of the 
New World which, instead of being called Columbia, as it 
should have been, has, by one of those curious freaks of 
fortune which pass all understanding, been named America. 

And I recalled the happy days, in years gone by, that 
I had spent in navigating, almost from its fountain-head 
in the Peruvian Andes to the ocean, this stupendous water- 
course, which had ever possessed for me, even from my 
boyhood, a fascination which I could never explain or de- 
scribe. I recalled all the marvels of fauna and flora, all 
the beauties of flowers and winged creatures, all the gor- 

1 For a somewhat extended account of Orellana 's wonderful exploit, the 
reader is referred to the author's "Along the Andes and Down the Amazon," 
in the chapter entitled "Komance of the Amazon," New York, 1911. 

27 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

geousness of river and sky which had been my delight for 
months and which I would fain enjoy again. Only the 
beautiful German word Sehnsucht — intense longing, ardent 
craving — expressed the feelings that then dominated me, 
for I felt then, as never before, that only far up the great, 
the mysterious Amazon could I really find, as a traveler, 
the land of the heart's desire. 

Shortly after entering the Southern Hemisphere a num- 
ber of us, including a patriotic New York lady and a 
learned professor from a western university, were stand- 
ing at the port gunwale watching the gambols of sportive 
dolphins and the flights of nimble flying-fishes, which were 
apparently striving to outstrip our steamer, when the lady 
suddenly inquired of the college don : ' i Why is it that we 
have met so few steamers since we left New York? And 
why is it that we see no vessels flying the American flag?" 

" These, madam," replied the professor, "are questions 
which are asked by every American who visits this part of 
the world — questions that our countrymen have been ask- 
ing of our legislators in Congress for years. Time was 
when the Stars and Stripes were to be seen everywhere 
along this route from Sandy Hook to Cape Horn and from 
Cape Horn to the Golden Gate. Now one may sail over 
this same course for a whole year without seeing his coun- 
try's flag even once, except, mayhap, on a man of war. 

"After we reach Bahia, we shall note a change. Then 
we shall see many vessels of all sizes, for there we shall 
cross the great ocean highway between South America and 
Europe. Then, too, we shall find splendid steamers flying 
the British, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Italian 
flags — vessels rivaling in size, speed and equipment the 
fleet of leviathans that almost daily pass our great Statue 
of Liberty — but they all — with one or two exceptions — ply 
between South America and the ports of the Old "World. 
And on this southern highway we shall meet merchant ves- 
sels almost as frequently as on the North Atlantic course, 

28 



IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP 

but in every ease, as in every South American port, the 
Stars and Stripes will be conspicuous by their absence. 

"It is, indeed, time that Congress should do something 
to restore our American merchant marine to something of 
its former prestige. We have deliberately turned over the 
past commerce of South America to our European com- 
petitors, and are annually forfeiting untold millions as a 
consequence. What may be the best way of retrieving our 
former maritime glory, whether it be by ship-subsidy or a 
change in our registry laws, let our legislators decide, but 
the adoption of either one, or both, of these expedients 
seems preferable to permitting our trade rivals to mo- 
nopolize commerce which naturally belongs to the people of 
the United States, and which they should spare no effort 
to secure and control." 

The professor, in the words quoted, but voiced the sen- 
timents of all intelligent and patriotic Americans who visit 
South America, and who live in the hope that Congress will, 
at no distant day, enact laws which will enable our mer- 
chant marine to take its proper place not only in the ports 
of South America but in all other ports of the world as 
well. 

Poets extol the delights of "a life on the ocean wave" 
and the joys of "a home on the rolling deep," but these 
delights and joys soon pall on one, even when one is pro- 
vided with all the comforts and distractions of our modern 
palatial ocean-flyers. For frequently the only visible ob- 
jects outside the ship, for a week or more, are the sea 
and sky, and then "old Ocean's gray and melancholy 
waste," in spite of the vaunted attractions of its surging 
billows, soon ceases to have the charms ascribed to it by 
those who know it only from hearsay or limited experience. 
This is evidenced by the fact that the least indication of life 
or suggestion of novelty on the sea's dreary expanse is sure 
to arrest the instant attention of passengers and crew alike. 
A sail, a streak of smoke in the distant horizon, a school of 

29 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

porpoises, a spouting whale — anything that exhibits life 
and movement — will at once draw animated crowds to deck 
and porthole and hold them there until the objects in ques- 
tion are lost in the distance. No matter how much one 
loves the sea, one soon longs for the attractions of terra 
firma — fragrant gardens and singing birds, smiling mead- 
ows dotted with happy flocks and herds, hives of industry 
and homes of peace and culture, and all else that makes 
the land one loves a thing of beauty and a joy forever. 

I must, however, refer to one feature of our voyage that 
always constituted a delightful break in the monotony of 
the ocean waste, and that was the really beautiful sunsets 
with which we were often favored, especially when we hove 
in sight of the Brazilian coast. So gorgeous indeed were 
the light and color displays of the sun when his course 
was nearly run, that many of us were wont to gather on 
the starboard quarter to witness his departing glories, shed 
on rock and hill and wave, when the vanishing orb of day 
was, of a truth, 

"Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, 
But one unclouded blaze of living light. ' ' 

I-* 



CHAPTER III 
BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

In a letter to his friend, Piero Goderini Gonfaloniere of 
Florence, the famous navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, tells us 
how, during his fourth voyage to the New World, he dis- 
covered a harbor which he called the Bahia de Todos los 
Santos. Like many other names of places in South Amer- 
ica, the original appellation of the harbor — Bay of All 
Saints — has been abbreviated and, for a long time, has 
been known simply as Bahia, the Spanish and Portuguese 
word for bay. The town which was subsequently founded 
on this bay was at first called by the Portuguese Sao Sal- 
vador da Bahia de Todos Os Santos. But the town, like 
the harbor and the state in which it is situated, is now also 
known as Bahia. Considering the size and beauty of the 
harbor and the perfect shelter it affords to shipping, its 
name Bahia — as if it meant a bay par excellence — is not 
altogether unjustified. For, with the exception of the 
matchless harbor of Eio de Janeiro, it is probably the best 
and most attractive bay in the Southern Continent. 

Our first view of this famous haven was on a beautiful 
morning in October, just a fortnight, almost to the hour, 
after we had left New York. Everyone was on deck as our 
steamer glided from the ocean into the bay, and few there 
were who could suppress exclamations of surprise and de- 
light when the magnificent panorama composed of city and 
harbor burst on their enchanted vision. The bay is nearly 
thirty miles long and from ten to twenty in width. It is 
dotted with a number of charming islets and surrounded 
by a coastline clothed with tropical verdure. The city — the 

31 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

third largest in Brazil— is divided into the " lower" and 
the " upper" town, and, as seen from the steamer, presents 
a picture of rarest beauty. The lower town consists of but 
a single narrow street along the water 's edge and reminds 
one much of an old thoroughfare in Cadiz or Lisbon. It 
is the chief business street of the city and is connected with 
the upper town, which is about two hundred feet above 
sea level, by an inclined roadway and by large elevators. 

The most conspicuous objects as one approaches Bahia 
from the ocean are its churches, convents and palm trees, 
These, silhouetted against a bright blue sky, are each a 
thing of beauty, and each a perfect picture worthy of care- 
ful study. All told, there is probably no city in South 
America, not even Montevideo, that greets the ocean way- 
farer with such a splendid vista as does Sao Salvador da 
Bahia de Todos Os Santos. 

We had scarcely come to anchor, when we were sur- 
rounded by a number of gayly decked craft of all kinds. 
Among them was a beautiful launch bearing a committee 
of government officials who had been delegated to welcome 
our party to Bahia. After cordial greetings had been ex- 
changed, we boarded the launch, and were soon on shore, 
where we were at once surrounded by applauding thou- 
sands, who had assembled to bid us welcome to Brazil. 
Everywhere Brazilian and American flags were flying and 
bands were playing the national airs of the United States 
of the North. The swaying multitude was so eager to 
catch a glimpse of our ex-President and, if possible, to 
grasp his hand, that it was with difficulty that we were 
able to reach the carriages that were waiting to convey us 
to the palace of the Governor. During our long drive 
through the city — for the Governor's palace is quite a dis- 
tance from the landing place — there were the same demon- 
strations of joy as at the quay. Houses were decorated 
with bunting, and the colors of Brazil and the United States 
were gracefully intertwined on public and private buildings 

32 



BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

as well. Everybody seemed to be in the street, or at the 
windows of the houses lining the thoroughfares through 
which we passed, all waving flags and handkerchiefs and 
all greeting us with words of welcome. When it is remem- 
bered that the population of the city is not less than a 
quarter of a million people, one can have some idea of the 
magnitude of the demonstration in honor of the visitors 
from the North. 

After paying our respects to the Governor, who gave us 
all a most cordial reception, we were taken in automobiles 
to the Municipal Palace, which, like the official home of the 
Governor, is a large and imposing structure. Here we met 
the members of the city council who impressed us as being 
a specially intelligent and earnest body of men. One of 
them made, in English, an address of welcome to Colonel 
Eoosevelt to which an appropriate response was made by 
the Colonel in his most felicitous style. 

When these formal visits were terminated, our hosts 
kindly escorted us through the city and gave us an oppor- 
tunity of seeing the most attractive features of this ancient 
metropolis. For Bahia is not only the oldest city of Brazil 
— I exclude certain towns and villages which were of earlier 
date — but it was for more than two centuries the nation's 
capital. More than fifty years before Hendrik Hudson 
dropped anchor in the river which now bears his name, 
Thome de Sousa, first governor-general of Brazil, laid the 
foundations of Sao Salvador on the heights above the Bay 
of All Saints. And more than a hundred years before the 
Pilgrim Fathers set foot on Plymouth Rock, a shipwrecked 
Portuguese by the name of Diogo Alvares had established 
himself here among the Indians, where he lived among them 
in patriarchal style, and where he became the father of a 
numerous progeny. Indeed there are not a few people still 
living in Bahia who are proud to claim this same Diogo 
Alvares as their ancestor. And why not? Diogo Alvares 
was the virtual founder of their city, for he was the first 

33 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Portuguese to make his home here, and the one who was 
chiefly instrumental in establishing friendly relations be- 
tween the Indians, of whom he became the chief, and those 
of his countrymen who settled here at a later date. To be 
able to trace his lineage back to the original white inhabi- 
tant of Sao Salvador and to the one who contributed more 
than anyone else to the peaceful colonizing of the country 
round about is a matter of legitimate pride for a Bahian. 
Has he not, indeed, greater reason to be proud of this an- 
cestor of his, who was not only a protector and benefactor 
of the Indians, but was also a loyal and energetic supporter 
of the Portuguese when his influence with the indigenes 
was all-powerful, than have many of the noble families of 
Europe whose forebears were either robber barons or sor- 
did condottieri? 

To one who visits South America for the first time, the 
oldest part of the city is the most interesting. Its one- 
story houses, with their flaring colors of red, green, blue, 
yellow, pink, and saffron, and the riot of tropical plants 
and flowers which are seen in every dooryard, and which, 
strange as it may appear, seem to harmonize with the 
garish colors of the buildings, are sure to arrest attention. 
Some of the more pretentious residences are faced with 
tiles of more subdued colors, and, seen in the midst of 
stately palms, umbrageous mango trees, and blooming 
shrubbery, are really attractive. 

But, as in other cities of the Southern Continent, the 
most notable structures are the churches and convents. One 
of the prettiest churches is La Piedade, whose polished 
dome, modeled after that of the superb cathedral of Santa 
Maria dei Fiori, in Florence, is one of the first objects 
visible from the deck of the steamer as it enters the harbor. 
Among the oldest churches is that of Nossa Senhora da 
Victoria, which is said to date back to 1630 and to occupy 
the site of a chapel built by Diogo Alvares — called by the 
Indians Caramurii — in commemoration of a victory which 

34 



BBAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

he had gained over his enemies. The church, however, 
which every visitor is invited to visit first is that of Sao 
Francisco. It is noted for its wonderful wood carvings — 
the work of native artisans — which adorn the sanctuary 
and the numerous side chapels, but still more for its ex- 
quisite tiling, which covers the lower part of the walls in 
the interior both of the church and the adjoining monas- 
tery. They were made in Holland and are enriched with 
splendidly executed scenes suggested by the Old and New 
Testaments. All the members of our party were delighted 
with this really unique decoration and were loath to tear 
themselves away from the contemplation of its manifold 
beauties. 

There are said to be no fewer than a hundred churches 
in Bahia. Many of the largest and richest of them were 
built by the various religious orders which settled in the 
city shortly after its foundation. It was here that the first 
Episcopal see was established, and the primacy of honor 
among the bishoprics of Brazil is still held by this ancient 
see of Sao Salvador. 

Until recent years Bahia has also held the primacy of 
education and culture. This is now divided between Rio 
Janeiro and Sao Paulo, although the schools of Bahia still 
enjoy an enviable reputation. The trade school under the 
direction of the Salesian Fathers and the Academy of Medi- 
cine, which is celebrated throughout Brazil, are both well 
worthy of a visit. Besides these, there are law and agricul- 
tural colleges, normal and polytechnic institutes, an acad- 
emy of fine arts and a conservatory of music, all of which 
are fine specimens of architecture and well provided with 
libraries, museums and other necessary appurtenances of 
thoroughly up-to-date institutions of instruction. All the 
schools are attended by a large number of pupils. The 
Lyceum of Arts and Trades alone counts almost two thou- 
sand students. According to the latest official reports, the 
number of educational institutions of all kinds in the city 

35 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and state of Bahia totals something more than eleven hun- 
dred — a much larger number than is usually credited to 
this part of the world. 

At the time of our visit to Bahia, the city was in the 
hands of a Brazilian Haussmann. Streets were being 
widened and improved ; old, one-story buildings were giving 
place to large and lofty structures, and the venerable old 
capital was rapidly being embellished and assuming a mod- 
ern aspect. And, although the day of our arrival was ob- 
served as a general festa, it was easy to see that Bahia is 
a stirring metropolis and an important center of industry 
and commerce. Its chief exports are sugar, coffee, cocoa 
and tobacco. I saw a German steamer plying between 
South America and Hamburg loaded with no less than 
twenty thousand bales of leaf tobacco. This cargo par- 
ticularly interested me for two reasons; first, because its 
production was controlled by Germans, and secondly, be- 
cause it was carried to European markets in German bot- 
toms. This, however, is one of numberless instances that 
might be cited of the activity of the merchants and ship- 
owners of the Fatherland in every center of trade and in- 
dustry in South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
and from the Caribbean to the Straits of Magellan. They 
are everywhere making inroads on the business of their 
competitors and breaking up monopolies that were long 
under the control of French and British syndicates. But 
they deserve their success, for no business men in South 
America are more industrious and enterprising than the 
Germans, and no steamship companies are more astute and 
accommodating than those whose headquarters are in 
Bremen and Hamburg. 

One of Bahia 's most interesting items of export — ■ 
and one that is not usually associated with this port — is 
diamonds. Although Kimberley, for some years past, has 
eclipsed the diamond fields of Brazil, it is, nevertheless, a 
fact that some of the finest diamonds in existence are from 

36 



SlsiLJvi 




Bahia Seen from the Harbor. 




Largo Costa Alves. Bahia. 



BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

this great republic. Among them are the famous gems, 
Star of the South, Star of Minas, and the Dresden diamond. 
These, however, were all from the state of Minas Geraes. 
But, notwithstanding this fact, Bahia has produced more 
diamonds than any of the several other diamond states of 
Brazil and has made fortunes for the lucky owners of 
its diamond fields. And it has also produced the largest 
of these precious stones. Indeed, the largest Carbonado, 
or black diamond, ever found, came from this state and 
weighed one hundred and twenty carats more than the cele- 
brated Cullinan diamond from South Africa. Another 
diamond, weighing almost six hundred carats, was found 
in 1890 and netted the fortunate miner nearly $100,000. In 
the town of Lavras Diamantinas the sole occupation of its 
inhabitants is diamond hunting. 

The first cargo of merchandise taken from what is now 
known as Brazil, to Portugal, went, if not from the Bay of 
All Saints, from a point not far south of it. It was carried 
in the vessels of Vespucci on his return to Lisbon after his 
fourth voyage. 1 This cargo, aside from a large number 
of parrots and monkeys, consisted exclusively of the dye- 
wood known as brazil. And, strange to relate, it was this 
particular species of the bean family — Pao Brasil 2 — which 

1 In his letter to Piero Soderini, giving an account of his fourth voyage to 
the New World, Vespucci writes: "In eo Portu bresilico puppes nostras 
onustas efficiendo quinque perstitimus menses. ' ' 

2 As a matter of fact, Vicente Yafiez Pinzon, an old associate of Columbus, 
and the commander of the Nina in the great Admiral's first voyage in 1492, 
was the discoverer of the region now known as Brazil. For, two months before 
Cabral sighted Monte Pascoal, near Porto Seguro, the Spanish explorer had 
sailed along the coast of South America from Cape Sao Augustin to the island 
of Trinidad, facing the estuary of the Orinoco. It was during this voyage 
that he reconnoitered the mouth of the Amazon — which he imagined to be a 
large fresh-water sea — to which the Spanish monarch, in his capitulation with 
Pinzon, actually gave the name of Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce. By virtue, 
however, of the Convention of Tordesillas, the Land of the Holy Cross was 
awarded to Portugal. Pinzon 's discovery was thus of little practical value to 
his country. Portuguese and Brazilian writers virtually ignore it by claiming 
Cabral as the discoverer of Brazil. 

37 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

has given to the great Brazilian republic the name it now 
bears. The Portuguese navigator, Pedro Alvares Cabral, 
whom the people of Brazil honor as the discoverer of their 
country, gave it the name of Terra de Santa Cruz, and as 
such it was known during the sixteenth century in all the 
countries of Europe except France. 1 This was the name 

1 M. Paul Gaffarel adduces the name Brazil — always used by the French, 
in lieu of Terra de Santa Cruz, to designate the land discovered by Cabral — in 
support of his ingenious theory that his countrymen, and not the Portuguese, 
were the real discoverers of South America. For he will have it that the 
French navigators made many clandestine voyages to this part of the world 
for the famous dyewood which was then so important an article of commerce, 
not only during the first years of the sixteenth, but also, very probably, during 
the closing decade of the fifteenth century — Cf . his ' ' Histoire du Bresil Fran- 
cais au Seizieme Siecle, Premiere Partie, " Paris, 1878. 

Brazil, as a dyewood, had been known for centuries before the discovery 
of America, and, by a curious chance, the name of the product was applied to 
the country producing it. But, as the location of this country, which was 
thought to be somewhere in the Atlantic, was not exactly known, the land of 
Brazil was supposed to float about in the ocean, changing its situation with the 
progress of discovery, as did the Isles of the Blest in ancient times, and the 
roving Island of St. Brendan at a later period. The memory of this wander- 
ing Island of Brazil was perpetuated, until a few decades ago, in certain Eng- 
lish and German charts, by Brazil Bock, a mass of basalt, which was located a 
few degrees west of the western coast of Ireland. 

By a curious coincidence, Chaucer, a hundred and twenty years before 
South America was sighted by Cabral and nearly two centuries before the name 
Brazil was generally accepted for the land he had discovered, associates the 
name Brazil with that of Portugal, as is seen in the couplet: 

Him nedeth not his colour for to dien 
With Brazil, ne with grain of Portugal. 

Camoens somewhere sings of the land discovered by Cabral as: 

Terra de Santa Cruz pouco sabida, 

and readers of the "Lusiads" will recall the verses in the tenth canto of this 
immortal epic in which the poet refers to the appanage of the Portuguese 
Crown in the New World as follows: 

But where the land is broadest ye shall claim 
The part that for its red wood is renowned; 
Of Santa Cruz ye shall bestow the name, 
Ye, by whose fleet that region first was found. 

And this great epic, be it remembered, in which Portugal's American pos- 
session was designated as the Land of the Holy Cross, was not published until 
1572. 

38 



BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

given it by King Manoel, the Great, when he formally noti- 
fied the sovereigns of Spain of Cabral's discovery, and 
the name by which it was designated by the chief cartog- 
raphers of the epoch. The eminent Portuguese historian, 
Joao de Barros, declared that the change of name from 
Terra de Santa Cruz to Brazil, "was inspired by the 
demon, for the vile wood which dyes cloth red is not 
worth the Blood shed for our redemption. ' ' x 

Cabral found a haven of refuge in the land he had so 
unexpectedly discovered, at a point about two degrees to 
the south of Bahia, and to this he gave the name Porto 
Seguro, which it still retains. But all that remains of the 
noble name which he gave to the vast region that he took 
possession of in the name of his sovereign is a small river 
near Porto Seguro, and a small town near its mouth, both 
of which still bear the name of Santa Cruz. 

One who visits Bahia for the first time is sure to be 
greatly impressed by the large proportion of the colored 
population which is everywhere visible. In some sections 
of the city, judging by the preponderating number of Ne- 
groes and mulattoes, one would almost fancy oneself in a 
town of Haiti or Santo Domingo. These are the descend- 
ants of the slaves who in colonial times were brought from 
Portuguese West Africa. No reliable statistics are avail- 
able, but it is estimated that more than four-fifths of the 
inhabitants have Negro blood in their veins. This is true 
also of Pernambuco, the flourishing capital of the state 
adjoining on the north, and, in a great measure, of Ceara 
and Para as well. 

There are, indeed, very few of the older Portuguese 
families of Bahia who do not exhibit traces of Indian or 
Negro blood. The reason is simple. The first conquerors 

1 Como que importava mas o nome de hum pao que tinge pannos, que 
d'aquelle pao que deu tintura a todolos sacramentos per que somos salvos, por 
o sangue de Christo Ieso que nelle foi derramado. "Decada Primeira da 
Asia,'' Fol. 89, de Joao de Barros, Lisbon, 1628. 

39 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

among the Portuguese, as among the Spaniards, were sol- 
diers of fortune or adventurers who went to the New World 
without wives or families. Many, probably the majority of 
them, married Indian women and thus gave rise to that 
large percentage of inhabitants variously known in Brazil 
as mestizos, mamelucos and curibocos. Between these half- 
castes and the Negroes alliances were also formed, as alli- 
ances were formed between the Indian and the Negro, and 
the Negro and the white man. The result of all this mis- 
cegenation is a series of transitional types that can be ex- 
pressed only by the rich terminology employed in Brazil. 
In English, we should not find enough difference between 
the issue of an Indian and a Negress, as compared with that 
of a Negro and an Indian woman, to justify two distinct 
denominations, but Brazilians are differently minded, and, 
accordingly, designate the first cross as a carbureto and 
the second as a cafuso. To such an extent has miscegena- 
tion prevailed in some of the seaboard cities between Bahia 
and Para that full-blooded whites, Negroes or Indians are 
rather the exception than the rule. 

The result, in most cases, has been essentially the same 
as in the alliance of the French Canadians with the Indians 
in the northwestern part of the United States — a lowering 
of the higher rather than an elevation of the lower ele- 
ments. Among notable exceptions to this tendency to de- 
terioration, as the result of race fusion, are the Paulistas of 
Southern Brazil and the inhabitants of Paraguay. 

One of the consequences of this amalgamation of the 
three peoples, is that race and color do not signify so much 
in Brazil as with us in the United States. Whites, Indians 
and Negroes associate together in a way which would be 
quite impossible with us, and which an old Virginia planter 
would condemn as an abomination unutterable. Some of 
the highest government and municipal offices in Bahia, as 
in other parts of Brazil, are held by Negroes and half- 
castes, and they attend public functions on a footing of ab- 

40 



BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

solute equality with the whites who have preserved their 
racial purity intact. One of the leading members on the 
reception committee, which came to greet our party before 
we landed, was a prominent government official who was a 
pure Negro. He took a conspicuous part in all the enter- 
tainments that were prepared for us during our visit and 
was always treated by his companions with the same re- 
spect and deference as if he had been a Filho do Reino — a 
native of Portugal — or a Filho da Terra — that is, one who 
is born in Brazil but of Portuguese descent — one, therefore, 
who is preeminently a Brazilian by birth, language and cul- 
ture. 

Truth to tell, there is not a little to say in favor of the 
fusion of the European and African races in Brazil. For 
some of the most distinguished men the country has pro- 
duced have had a strain of Negro blood in their veins. 
This is evidenced by looking over the long list of literary 
men, artists, poets, historians, jurisconsults, men of science, 
novelists and politicians in which the amalgamation of the 
white and the black has been most pronounced, as, for in- 
stance, in Bahia, Pernambuco, Ceara and Maranhao. From 
the Negro the Portuguese receives, among other traits, a 
more lively imagination, and a more perfect adaptability to 
the climate of the tropics — traits that are sure to impress 
the traveler in all parts of Brazil, but more particularly in 
those regions in which there has been the most complete 
mixture of the whites and blacks. General Dumas, whom 
Napoleon called "the Horatius Codes of the Tyrol," and 
the famous dramatic authors and novelists, Dumas Pere 
and Dumas Fils, are not the only instances in which a re- 
markable flowering of the intellect has been exhibited by 
the offspring of black and white parents. Brazil can show 
countless instances of this kind in every department of in- 
tellectual activity. "What will be the final outcome of this 
merging of the two races in Brazil is, of course, impos- 
sible to forecast, but from what has so far taken place the 

41 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

result is not by any means so disastrous as we in the United 
States should be inclined to believe. 

It is usually said that there is no "Negro Question" in 
Brazil. This assertion, however, requires qualification. 
There is not in Brazil, for the reasons already indicated, 
a Negro Question in the sense in which it exists in the 
United States and in the West Indies. But, notwithstand- 
ing the admixture of the white and the Negro in a large 
percentage of the Brazilian population, and notwithstand- 
ing the fact that the whites and blacks generally associate 
on a footing of equality, it is, nevertheless, certain that 
among the more exclusive families of European origin, 
there is the same antipathy — although not so intense — to 
the Negro as in our own country; and for them, as well as 
for our northern people, a solvent for race uncongeniality 
is yet to be found. 

As an illustration of this antipathy, I may refer to an 
occurrence in Bahia, which, shortly after our visit there, 
set the whole city in an uproar. The director of a private 
school declined to receive a colored boy among his white 
pupils, and at once he was denounced as one violating the 
spirit of the law which recognizes no legal distinction be- 
tween blacks and whites. Long editorials in the local pa- 
pers protested against the director's discrimination as an 
intolerable outrage, and demanded that the offender should 
forthwith be punished in the most drastic manner. 

Apropos of this antipathy, which manifests itself in 
spite of laws, customs, and long and intimate association 
of the two races in public and private life, a story is told 
of Dom Pedro II, whose memory is still held in benediction 
in all parts of the republic. In one of the last entertain- 
ments given by him in the imperial palace before his ban- 
ishment from Brazil he observed a mulatto, who held a high 
official position, standing in the corner and not daring to 
take part in the function. The emperor, divining the cause 
of the official's backwardness, immediately presented him to 

42 



BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

his daughter in order that he might have a partner for the 
dance. I do not vouch for the authenticity of the story, but 
it is told to illustrate the importance which even Dom Pedro 
attached to having his subjects meet one another on a 
footing of equality, regardless of race or color. 

Still, in spite of the mutual tolerance which dates back 
to the early colonial period, in spite of long association 
together in schools, societies, and offices of public trust, in 
spite of laws and traditions that make for union and equal- 
ity, there is yet, especially among the "four hundred" of 
the white population in the larger cities, a decided disin- 
clination to meet Negroes socially on the same footing as 
Europeans, no matter what may be their attainments or 
how high their position in public life. To this extent there 
is a Negro Question, even in Brazil, although to the casual 
visitor it may not be apparent. 

What shall be the character and destiny of the new 
division of mankind that shall eventually issue from the 
melting-pot of the three ethnical elements in Brazil — the 
white, the Negro and the Indian — it is impossible to fore- 
cast, but, none the less, all who are occupied with questions 
of sociology, ethnology and anthropology will watch the 
experiment with the deepest interest. The result may be 
of untold value in supplying a key towards the solution of 
many social and economic problems which have long con- 
fronted statesmen and philanthropists in every part of the 
Western Hemisphere. 

When we left New York, among those who came to see 
us off and bid us Godspeed was His Excellency Don Domi- 
cio da Gama, the Brazilian Ambassador. I had conferred 
with him several times in Washington regarding our ex- 
pedition and as soon as he learned that we had decided to 
undertake it he took a very active interest in it. He at once 
communicated our plans to his government, and assured me 
that we could count on it for the most cordial sympathy 
and cooperation. Knowing, as I did from past experience, 

43 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the generous and enterprising character of the Brazilian 
people, this did not surprise me. But there was a surprise 
in store for me, and for all the members of our party as 
well. The Ambassador gave me an intimation of this, in a 
somewhat veiled manner, as he bade good-bye to me, when 
he said: "I think you will get some idea of Brazilian hos- 
pitality on your arrival in Bahia." 

His words, as subsequent events proved, implied far 
more than they seemed to indicate, for no one could have 
been received with more genuine and unfeigned hospitality, 
from the governor to the humblest day laborer, than were 
all the members of our party. But it was not until we met 
the elite of the city — men and women — at a public breakfast 
given us, that we realized the full significance of the am- 
bassador's words. The repast was in every way a most 
sumptuous affair, but this was quite surpassed by the spirit 
of good-fellowship which was dominant, and the delicate 
attentions that were showered on the guests of the day. 
"We were at once made to feel that we were among friends 
and among people who have a profound admiration for our 
country and its institutions, and who are eager to see their 
republic and our own united in the closest bonds of amity 
and comity. 

The impression left on all of us by this historic and 
picturesque old city was one which will always endure. 
During our all too short visit, we had seen sufficient evi- 
dence of the business ability, the alertness and the enter- 
prise of its citizens to justify us in predicting a continuance 
of the new era of progress and prosperity upon which it 
has recently entered, and in looking forward to its assum- 
ing, at no distant day, a far more important role than ever 
before in the activities of international commerce. This 
thought was brought home to me with special force as I 
contemplated, from an eminence, the magnificent bay of 
Todos Os Santos, and in fancy tried to picture its appear- 
ance when the projected railroad from Tangier to the great 

44 



BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL 

modern port of the French on the coast of Senegal shall be 
completed and when Europe shall be brought six days 
nearer to Bahia than it is at present. It will then occupy 
a more commanding position than ever before on the great 
trade route between Europe and South America, and then 
the deep-laden argosies of the world will meet in its land- 
locked harbor and give to the ancient capital an importance 
and a prestige among the great marts of commerce in the 
Southern Continent that it has never known during the 
entire course of its long and eventful history. 

I shall never forget the confession made to me, shortly 
before we returned to our steamer, by a high German 
official at Bahia, after he had requested me to present him 
to Colonel Eoosevelt. "I am pleased to make the acquain- 
tance of Mr. Eoosevelt, but I am sorry he has come to 
South America." 

"Why?" I inquired in surprise. 

"Because he is going to take away South American trade 
from Germany." 

I subsequently heard expression given to the same fear 
by Germans in other parts of South America. They evi- 
dently had made up their minds that Roosevelt was going 
to imperil the valuable commercial relations between the 
Vaterland and the various South American republics, and 
that something must be done to neutralize this effect of his 
visit. 

They had not long to wait. The Kaiser and his advisers 
had evidently taken the same view of the situation. For 
scarcely had the Roosevelt expedition entered the Brazilian 
jungle when the hearts of German merchants and shippers 
were rejoiced by the cheering announcement that the em- 
peror had decided to counteract Roosevelt's influence in 
the commercial world by sending his brother, Prince Henry, 
in the magnificent new steamer Trafalgar, to make a 
friendly visit to all the republics in which the illustrious 
North American was supposed to have spread the most ef- 

45 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

fective trade propaganda. To judge from the editorials 
in the German press anent the result of Prince Henry's 
visit, our German friends feel that they can still continue 
to pursue their usual vocations without any fear of finan- 
cial loss through the advent of undesired competitors. 

Our party received here a valuable and unexpected 
accession in the person of Kermit Roosevelt, who, for 
nearly two years, had been making his home in Southern 
Brazil and who had come to Bahia to meet his parents, 
whom he had not seen since his departure from his native 
country. "We were all, of course, delighted to have such 
an important addition to our ranks, for it would have been 
impossible to have found one who so well rounded out our 
personnel as Kermit — as he was always known among us — 
or who. was better qualified by previous experience to pro- 
mote the best interests of our expedition. Besides being 
a capital hunter and one who enjoyed life in the wild 
as well as any of us, he was ever a charming companion 
and one who could always be counted on to do his full share 
of work whatever might be its character. Of unfailing 
bonhomie, under all circumstances, and of abounding re- 
source in the most trying situations, Kermit contributed 
greatly to the success which the expedition had the good 
fortune to achieve. 



CHAPTER IV 

SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

Florence! beneath the sun, 
Of cities fairest one. 

It is thus that the poet Shelley, in his beautiful "Ode to 
Naples," apostrophizes the city of Dante, Giotto and 
Michael Angelo. As I caught the first glimpse, from its 
incomparable harbor, of the city of Eio de Janeiro, I re- 
called the words of the gifted singer, and thought that the 
epithet of fairest city beneath the sun could now most 
appropriately be applied to the beauteous capital of 
Brazil. 

Although no one told us that we were entering the gate- 
way of Guanabara Bay, on which the great metropolis is 
situated, there could be no doubt about it. For, looming 
up before us on our port quarter, was the imposing Pao 
d'Assucar — Sugar Loaf Mountain 1 — with which everyone 
who has read anything about South America is familiar. 
This towering mass of granite, which rises sheer out of 
the water, was, it is related by a patriotic Brazilian, placed 
here by the Creator, after he had fashioned the Bay of 
Guanabara — as the harbor of Rio de Janeiro is known — 
as an exclamation point to direct special attention to His 
masterpiece of terrestrial beauty and majesty. And today, 
when it heaves in sight, the voyager knows that Rio de 
Janeiro is near and that he will soon be enjoying the hos- 
pitality of the second largest city in South America. 

1 When first discovered the Portuguese called this lofty rock Caret de Cao — 
Dog's Face — while the early French navigators named it Pot de Beurre — 
Butter Pot. 

47 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Scarcely less striking than Pao d'Assucar are two other 
mountain peaks — likewise on onr port side — called from 
their peculiar shapes, Gavea — Round-top — and Corcovado 
— Hunchback. They are both much larger and higher than 
the Sugar Loaf, and stand a short distance from the shore. 
They seem like two colossal guardians of the fair city that 
lies at their feet. With the exception of their lofty sum- 
mits, they are not so bare of vegetation as the Pao 
d'Assucar, and, for this reason they have, even at a dis- 
tance, an element of beauty that is almost entirely absent 
from the bald and rocky Sugar Loaf. 

But more impressive far than the view of either of these 
granite masses taken separately is the weird figure formed 
by the three of them when observed from the proper angle. 
They then give us what is locally known as Gigante que 
dorme — The Sleeping Giant. Gavea forms the head, Cor- 
covado the trunk and legs, and Pao d'Assucar the feet of 
a Brobdingnagian monster who lies supine with his head 
on the flank of the mountain range at the rear of the city 
and his feet at the very edge of the azure waters of the 
ocean. The likeness of the recumbent figure to the human 
form is really extraordinary, and it is in many respects 
more remarkable than any similar formation in any other 
part of the world. "The Woman in White," on the sum- 
mit of Ixtaccihuatl, as seen across the valley of Anahuac 
from the eminence above Toluca, is wonderfully lifelike in 
her winding-sheet of eternal snow. La Amortahada — The 
Enshrouded Woman— on the island of Santa Clara, off 
the southern coast of Ecuador, as viewed under the rays 
of the setting sun is also a marvel, and once seen can never 
be forgotten. 1 So also is the fancied figure of The Dead 
Inca on a lofty peak adjoining Mount Misti, in Peru. But 
strange and fantastic as are these three wonderful simili- 
tudes of the "human form divine," they must all yield 

1 See "Along the Andes and Down the Amazon," p. 44 et seq., by H. J. 
Mozans, New York, 1911. 

48 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

in interest and in significance to The Sleeping Giant of Eio 
de Janeiro. I say significance, for I could not help regard- 
ing this titanic form as symbolic of the great republic of 
Brazil which is just beginning to awaken to what seems a 
great and glorious future. For Brazil with all her count- 
less potentialities has hitherto, like the giant, been in a 
dormant state and it is only now that she is preparing to 
rise from that lethargy which has incapacitated her from 
taking her proper place among the great nations of the 
world. 

It is only after we have passed through the granite 
gateway to the bay of Rio de Janeiro — a gateway that is 
flanked on both sides by strong fortifications bristling with 
large and modern guns — that one begins to have some faint 
conception of the vastness and the magnificence of this 
ocean inlet. The Tamoyo Indians called it Nichteroy — Hid- 
den Water 1 — and the name is so appropriate that it is a 
pity that it has not been retained. It is also called, even to- 
day, the bay or sea of Guanabara, an Indian name of dis- 
puted meaning, but one which far more accurately describes 
this extensive body of water than does the usual appellation 
of Rio de Janeiro, which literally means River of January. 
This name was given it by the Portuguese navigator, 
Goncalo Coelho, because he discovered it on the first of 
January, 1502, and because, from superficial observations, 
he imagined it to be the estuary of a river, which it is not. 
It is a miniature sea eighteen miles long from north to 
south, and twelve miles in width from' east to west at its 
widest part. Or rather, it is an archipelago, for its placid 
waters are dotted with no less than a hundred isles and 
islets. Some of these, like Paqueta and Gobernador, are 
inhabited, while others are little more than masses of rock 
bearing in their seamed surfaces flecks of verdure, or an 
occasional palm or mango tree with dark-green branches 

1 It is also said to mean ' ' cold water, ' ' because of the cold ocean currents 
which, during certain months of the year, enter the bay. 

49 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

made vocal by twittering birds of sweetest. notes and richest 
plumage. 

It was early dawn when we sighted The Sleeping Giant, 
and by the hour of sunrise we were well within the glorious 
bay of Guanabara. Thanks to the courtesy of our genial 
captain, Colonel Eoosevelt and I were given a good posi- 
tion on the bridge whence to survey the scenic marvels 
which greeted us from every point of the compass. 

We were in the midst of a vast amphitheater formed by 
mountain ranges and lofty peaks that pierced the clouds. 
Directly ahead of us, lapped by the myriad tongues of the 
bay, was the fair city of Sao Sebastiao de Eio de Janeiro. 1 
Behind it rose in serene majesty the forest-clad mountain 
of Tijuca, and still farther toward the west was the cele- 
brated range of the Serra dos Orgaos. It is so called from 
its fancied resemblance to the pipes of an immense organ. 
In places it is more than six thousand feet high. The 
sharpest and most striking pinnacle of the Organ Moun- 
tains is called Dedo de Deus — Finger of God. 

The mountains surrounding the city were enveloped 
in clouds when we first entered the bay, but the rising sun 
soon cleared up the atmosphere, and then every detail of 
mountain, bay and city came out in glorious relief. Then, 
in the dreamlike radiance of the morning, the panorama 
before us revealed itself as one unbroken line of perfectly 
modulated landscape. In every direction were the most 
charming vistas of green and gold. The bases and flanks 
of Tijuca and the towering summits of the Serra dos 

1 The original name given to the city of Eio de Janeiro by its founder, 
Mem de Sa, was Sao Sebastiao. It was so named in honor of the then reigning 
king of Portugal, and also in honor of Saint Sebastian, whose feast is cele- 
brated on the twentieth of January — the day on which Mem de Sa and his 
nephew, Estacio de Sa, won a decisive victory over the French and their Indian 
allies. The present abbreviated name Eio — river — so called from a river that 
does not exist — is the strangest kind of a misnomer and is about as appropriate 
for so beautiful a city as is the epithet Bahia — bay — to the capital of the state 
of that name. For many reasons it seems a pity that the original appellations 
were not retained. 

50 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

Orgaos were bathed in the luminous rays of the tropical 
sun which suffused everything with wonder and beauty and 
transmuted them into visions of ineffable splendor. The 
waters of Guanabara seemed to have all the reputed tints 
of the dying dolphin, for their colors changed with every 
movement of the clouds — with every reflection of the sun 's 
rays from the rapidly disappearing vapors which had sur- 
charged the soft, warm atmosphere of the morning. Every- 
where they quivered with romance and with the golden 
charm of fairyland. 

The color notes of mountain, and bay, and island struck 
a pleasant harmony with the exquisitely tinted lines of 
the city beautiful cradled between the evergreen foothills 
of Tijuca and the resplendent waters of Guanabara. Even 
at a distance, Eio de Janeiro seems a city of gardens. 
The prevailing tone of its embowered villas and sun-stained 
palaces and churches is a pearly white, passing, by deli- 
cate gradations, into light orange and primrose. The city, 
indeed, is as unique as its setting. The first view of it fully 
justifies all that can be said in its praise. 

The harbor of Rio de Janeiro has frequently been com- 
pared with those of other world-famed cities. But it is 
so far beyond all others in scenic beauty, in the gorgeous 
pageant of mountains and hills with their delicately drawn 
outlines, in its lovely bays and its century of islands tinted 
with the most exquisite aerial hues, that comparison is quite 
out of place. Not Naples so famed in song and story, 
not Vigo with its garland of islands and mountain peaks ; 
not Palermo with its Conca d'Oro surmounted by Mount 
Pellegrino; not Sydney with its island-studded bay; not 
Constantinople with its Golden Horn crowned by mosques 
and minarets, can offer anything that so rejoices the eye 
and so satisfies our ideal of supreme beauty in nature as 
does the peerless bay of Guanabara. 

"0 que linda situacao para se fundar luuna villa!" — Oh, 
what a beautiful situation for founding a town! — said 

51 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Duarte Coelho Pereira when he first laid eyes on the site 
of the present city of Pernambuco. With how much more 
truth could not these words be applied to the location of 
the city of Saint Sebastian? 

Writing to Lorenzo de 'Medici about the marvels of the 
Land of the Holy Cross, Amerigo Vespucci declares of it : 
"If there is a terrestrial paradise in the world, it cannot 
be far from this region." Had he gazed on the wonders 
of Nichteroy? He does not inform us, but one loves to 
think that he did, and that the beauties of Eden were sug- 
gested by what here met his enchanted vision. 1 

It is related that, some decades ago, when yellow fever 
was still very prevalent in Rio de Janeiro, an English 
nobleman was wont every year, during three days of spring- 
tide, to cruise among the islands of Guanabara bay without 
ever once leaving his yacht. He kept always aboard, for 
he knew that to land might mean death from the plague. 
Some regarded his annual visit to these waters as an 
eccentricity. They did not realize how great for him 
was the lure of this matchless harbor, and how completely 
its countless marvels had enthralled his beauty-loving soul. 
There are, I fancy, few lovers of Nature, with means and 
leisure, who, after being once under the magic spell of this 
enchanting bay, would not be disposed to follow the Eng- 
lishman's example. 

So deeply, at first, was I fascinated by the contemplation 
of the beauties and wonders of land and sea that the crea- 
tions of man almost passed unobserved. But I soon had 
ocular evidence that I was in one of the world's great 
centers of commerce. For on all sides were steamers and 
sailing craft of all kinds and sizes, and from all parts of 
the earth. Some were quietly riding at anchor, while others 
were preparing to discharge their cargoes at the magnifi- 
cent new docks recently completed, and still others were 

1 According to the Brazilian historian, Dom Candido Mendes, Amerigo 
Vespucci visited the bay of Guanabara with Dom Nuno Manoel in 15Q2, 

S3 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

under way to distant ports beyond the ocean. And here, 
too, were those terrible engines of war — the latest and 
largest types of dreadnoughts. It seemed almost like a 
desecration to have these terrific instrumentalities of death 
in this placid bay which Nature had so manifestly intended 
as a haven of peace and happiness. 

Presently, our attention was attracted by the sound of 
distant music and by the appearance of a small fleet of 
gayly decked craft flying the Brazilian flag and the Stars 
and Stripes. They were filled with officials of the govern- 
ment and private citizens who were coming to bid us wel- 
come to Brazil and to offer us the freedom of its capital 
city. There were the same demonstrations of pleasure and 
delight as we had witnessed in Bahia, but on a far grander 
scale. The multitude at the landing-stage was legion; those 
who crowded the adjacent streets numbered myriads. 
Bands played, drums thumped, regalia flashed, crowds 
acclaimed, banners waved in all the wild enthusiasm of a 
national holiday. 

From the Praca 15 Novembre, where we landed, we were 
escorted to the superb palace of Guanabara. This was 
formerly the home of Princess Isabel, the distinguished 
daughter of the Emperor Dom Pedro II. She it was who, 
while regent during her father's absence abroad, set free 
all of the slaves of Brazil by a single stroke of her pen, 
and that, too, without causing war or bloodshed. The pal- 
ace is now the official residence of the President of the 
Brazilian republic and is one of the noblest and most im- 
posing structures in the Southern Continent. Here we were 
installed as the guests of the nation, and were made to 
feel, in the kindliest and most courteous manner, that while 
within its hospitable walls we were really at home and 
among friends. 

The sun was still young when, the day after our arrival, 
we started out to take our first survey of Brazil's capital. 
The serene purity of the sky was almost dazzling in its 

53 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

luster. The vast amphitheater which incloses the city in 
its delicate embrace was a maze of shadows diapered with 
green and gold. The rocks in the foreground were seamed 
with countless shades of color, while the feathery, tufted 
foliage of the palm-trees swayed in the wind to the sweet- 
toned symphonies of the joyous birds that caroled their 
lays of love. 

Our intention was to get a general impression of the 
metropolis before examining it in detail. Under the guid- 
ance of a young native of Eio — who proved to be not only 
an intelligent cicerone, but also a most charming compan- 
ion — and in a sumptuous automobile which had been put at 
our disposition during our sojourn in the city, we visited 
the principal points of interest in the business part of the 
city. Chief among these was the Avenida Central — now 
called Avenida Rio Branco — and the famous old Rua do 
Ouvidor. 

Avenida Rio Branco, named in memory of the late min- 
ister of foreign affairs, who enjoyed an international repu- 
tation as a statesman, is a splendid thoroughfare that came 
into existence twenty years ago through the same methods 
which Baron Haussmann so successfully employed in beau- 
tifying Paris. Following the example of the French gov- 
ernment in the construction of the splendid Avenue de 
1 'Opera, the government of Brazil exercised its right of 
eminent domain and appropriated sufficient property to 
secure the building lots on each side of the new highway. 
An immense passageway, six hundred and fifty feet wide 
and a mile and a quarter long, was cut directly through 
the business heart of the city. Not a single building in 
this vast area was left standing. And when the work of 
reconstruction was begun, all plans for new buildings had to 
be submitted to a special commission which insisted on a 
certain harmony of design in all the structures erected. 
In this way were secured the best architectural and per- 
spective effects. In less than two years the street, with 

54 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

all its palatial structures, public and private, was com- 
pleted, and the people of Rio de Janeiro could point to an 
avenue that ranks with the most beautiful in the world. 

It is along this avenue that one will find the largest 
and most imposing structures of modern Eio. Conspicu- 
ous among them are the National Library, the Academy 
of Fine Arts, the Monroe Palace, and the Municipal The- 
ater. The last-named building, modeled after the opera- 
house of Paris, cost no less than ten million dollars. It 
is probably the most elaborate theater in the Western 
Hemisphere, and has been, since its erection, a Mecca for 
the greatest operatic stars of Europe. 

Rua do Ouvidor — Auditor Street — so named because 
the royal Portuguese auditor — Dr. Francisco Berquo de 
Silveira — had his official residence here, is quite unlike 
Avenida Rio Branco, except that both of them are centers 
of activity and fashion. It is short and narrow — so nar- 
row indeed that vehicle traffic in it is forbidden. The mid- 
dle of the street, as well as the sidewalks, is always 
thronged, especially during the latter part of the after- 
noon. For it has been from time immemorial the favorite 
rendezvous of business men and politicians who foregather 
here in the cafes and restaurants and bookstores to dis- 
cuss the news of the day and get a copy of the latest French 
novel. All educated Brazilians speak French and make 
such demand for the lighter kinds of French literature that 
whole editions of certain favorite authors are sent to Rio 
as soon as they come from the Paris press. 

But Rua do Ouvidor is more interesting as headquarters 
for the finest jewelry and for the latest creations of Pari- 
sian modistes. In the shop windows, on each side of the 
street, one will see gorgeous displays of Brazil diamonds 
and tourmalines, Brussels and Venetian laces, and the rich- 
est silk and satin fabrics from French and Italian looms. 
Here dames of rank and fashion most do congregate, and 
the richly gowned women exhibit all the delicacy of taste 

55 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

shown by their sisters of Fifth Avenue, or the Kue de la 
Paix. 

It was, however, the romance of Eua do Ouvidor that 
particularly appealed to me. If this street had a voice 
it could tell more of the history of the city since its foun- 
dation in 1567 by Mem de Sa on Monte Sao Januario — 
now Monte do Castello — than could any other thoroughfare 
in the capital. It could tell strange stories of love and 
crime, of war and intrigue, and of its gradual evolution 
from a few wattled huts among the Tamoyo Indians to one 
of the world's great centers of trade and culture. 

The city fathers of Rio, like municipal officials in other 
Latin- American cities, devote their leisure time to chang- 
ing the names of streets to the great annoyance of his- 
torians, and often, also, to the disgust of its citizens. To 
show that they are not idle, they have recently given the 
name of an obscure colonel — Moreira Cesar — to the ven- 
erable Eua do Ouvidor. But the people of Eio have ignored 
the change of name, and, although the official designation 
is given in large letters on the street corners, every true 
Carioca 1 still calls the cherished old landmark, so rich in 
historical associations, and so redolent of romance, by the 
name he has called it since infancy — Eua do Ouvidor. 2 

Another thoroughfare that particularly interested me 
was the Mangue Canal — used for draining the lowlands of 
the city. It is flanked on each side by a street and a double 
row of stately palms which make it one of the most 
attractive features of the capital. The section of the city 

1 The name given the people of Eio de Janeiro, from the fountain of 
Carioca, in the center of the city, whose waters were originally supplied by the 
Carioca aqueduct, from the Carioca river whose source is in the heights of 
Tijuca. 

Another name used by the Brazilians to designate the denizens of Eio de 
Janeiro is Fluminenses — river-folk. To the foreigner it seems absurd for people 
to persist in being named after a river — flumen — which has no existence. 

2 The reader who is interested in the early history of Eio de Janeiro and 
in the romantic past of Eua do Ouvidor, will find the story delightfully told 
jn Joaquin Manoel de Macedo 's charming ' ' Memorias da Bua do Ouvidor, ' ' 

56 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

drained by this canal is tenanted chiefly by the poorer 
classes, or by people of moderate means. But even among 
the poorest of the poor I observed no evidence of the 
squalor and suffering found in so many of the large cities 
of the United States and Europe. There are no slums in 
Rio and there is, consequently, a marked absence of those 
low, debauched criminal classes that thrive in such quar- 
ters. Here the houses are small — usually of one story. 
Many of them are painted in the most garish colors. The 
dominating shades are blue and dark red. Frequently one 
will see the facade painted a bright blue, while the win- 
dows and shutters are green, and the sides of the house 
are a pronounced yellow or brown. But when all these 
things are seen in their peculiar setting of brick-red earth, 
an inflamed sky, and a luxuriant tropical flora, their ap- 
parently violent tonality disappears and the result is a 
sumptuous harmony which produces on the eye the same 
effect that certain phrases of a Wagnerian symphony pro- 
duce on the ear. 

The facades of some of the buildings, even of the hum- 
bler classes, are frescoed, and often reproduce local views, 
particularly views of the bay. In this respect they are not 
unlike certain houses in Italy which are adorned with 
paintings representing choice bits of scenery around the 
bay of Naples, or along the picturesque flanks of the Alps 
or Apennines. The greater number of them are occupied 
by Negroes or half-breeds, but every house has its door- 
yard and, not infrequently, a garden in the rear. For this 
reason the density of Rio's population, even in its most 
congested sections, is far less than that of the large and 
crowded cities of Europe and even of the United States. 
Taken as a whole, it has been estimated that the density of 
population in Rio is six times less than that of New York, 
twenty times less than that of London, and fifty times less 
than that of Paris. There is everywhere an abundance of 
light and air, and all, even the poorest, seem to be cheerful 

57 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and contented. Everywhere the yards and streets were 
filled with coveys of large-eyed, laughing pickaninnies who 
were making merry in the flood of tropical sunshine. Their 
multi-colored garments were short and scant — usually a 
simple slip of the cheapest fabric. The expense of cloth- 
ing them was nominal, as was also the cost of fuel — items 
which in our northern zones are, for the poor, a matter 
of serious import. And where bananas, maize, and man- 
dioca are so abundant, as in Brazil, there is no reason why 
colored children of every shade should not, like their par- 
ents before them, wax strong and grow fat. 

When I saw the teeming crowds of colored children 
that were everywhere romping and laughing, I recalled 
the saying of the old Aristotelian school which declares 
Homo generat hominem et sol. This statement which 
attributes the generation of man to the joint action of 
man and the sun, seemed to find justification here, if in 
any part of the world. Here, indeed, where the earth is 
ever bathed in sunshine, the little Negroes and half-breeds 
were so numerous that one could almost fancy them spring- 
ing up like the Athenians, or originating, according to the 
legend of Deucalion, from the stones of the earth. 

But the great attraction of Rio de Janeiro, particularly 
for one who visits it for the first time, is the superb, the 
unique Avenida Beira Mar. Beginning at the southern 
end of the Avenida Rio Branco, it skirts along the beauti- 
ful bay of Guanabara for nearly four miles. On the side 
facing the bay is a massive sea wall with a graceful 
parapet, erected at the cost of millions of dollars, while 
on the opposite side are magnificent gardens, drives, prom- 
enades and villas. Besides a tramway, this broad avenue 
has two well-kept asphalt drives for carriages and auto- 
mobiles, and, in a city where there are so many high-classed 
vehicles as in Rio de Janeiro, one can be sure that the 
Avenida Beira Mar is always a popular speedway. 

I have said that this bayside drive is unique. But it 

58 




Guanabara Palace. Our Home While in Rio de Janeiro. 




Avenida Beira Mar. Rio de Janeiro. 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

is more than that. It is, without doubt, the most beauti- 
ful thoroughfare in the world. We have nothing in the 
United States that can at all approach it. Even the most 
celebrated avenues and boulevards of the great European 
capitals are completely eclipsed by it. The Champs 
Elysees, the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, the Eingstrasse 
and Unter den Linden, all have their attractions and de- 
serve all the praise enthusiastic travelers have bestowed 
upon them, but they must, one and all, yield the palm to this 
wonderful creation of Rio de Janeiro. The famous drive 
from Sorrento to Amain is justly celebrated for its gor- 
geous views of mountain and sea. But even this falls 
below the magnificent panoramas that are spread out on 
both sides of Beira Mar. For this wondrous avenue not 
only delights the eye of the beholder with the beautiful 
gardens and luxurious homes that are such distinguishing- 
features of the favorite drives of Paris, Vienna and Berlin, 
not only does it exhibit the gorgeous marine views of 
Italy's roadway, but it exhibits, in all its glory, what 
Europe has not, cannot have. It displays, on every side, 
an exuberance of tropical vegetation that cannot be sur- 
passed in any part of the globe. Every house is sur- 
rounded by plants and trees of exquisite form and delicate 
foliage and by flowers of every hue and fragrance. Every 
nook and corner is rich in blooms both wild and domestic. 
And everywhere there is a veritable riot of dahlias, jas- 
mines, begonias, pinks, azaleas, gloxinias, of camelias of 
every tint and form, and of chrysanthemums that would ex- 
cite the jealousy even of Japan. The flaming hibiscus, the 
resplendent Bougainvillea, the beautiful oytis trees, the 
royal oreodoxa here alternate with cataracts of roses that 
everywhere fall from walls and trellises; with vines and 
creepers of rarest luxuriance covering house and tree ; with 
delicate velvety orchids which our northern belles would 
prize more than gold or jewels. 

But more beautiful still are the bevies of human flowers 

59 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

at the windows of the charming villas along this marvelous 
drive. Everywhere in Latin- American cities it is the cus- 
tom of gayly dressed girls and young ladies to spend several 
hours of the day gazing from windows and balconies on 
the outside world, but in no part of South or Central Amer- 
ica do they so beautifully fill out the kaleidoscopic pictures 
formed by garden, villa, and palacete as they do in Kio de 
Janeiro. 

Here the great sea wall is washed by foam-flecked break- 
ers and the long waves of Guanabara's bay quiver in the 
untempered sunshine. There, in a sheltered inlet, the un- 
ruffled waters are shot with all the myriad colors of the 
rainbow — pale and delicate greens, and pinks and mother- 
of-pearl. These, combined with the opaline transparencies 
of air and water, the emerald mountains that encircle the 
bay and the distant sky lines tinged with blue and ame- 
thyst, evoke an oriental vision, and make every villa along 
Beira Mar like an enchanted palace. 

The Avenida Beira Mar, the Mangue Canal and the 
Avenida Eio Branco — all of which have contributed so 
much to the embellishment of the city — are quite recent 
improvements. They were begun only a decade ago and 
were completed in a few years. It is doubtful whether an 
undertaking of similar magnitude and importance has 
ever, in any other part of the world, been carried on with 
greater energy and intelligence and rushed to completion 
in a shorter period of time. 

One of the most notable of Eio de Janeiro's recent 
achievements was the construction of the docks which per- 
mit vessels of the greatest draft to deliver their cargoes 
directly into the immense warehouses that are built along 
the wharves. These, like the celebrated docks of Santos, 
are works in which all Brazilians take great pride. Modeled 
after the great docks of Antwerp, they embody the latest 
ideas of engineering science and are not surpassed by sim- 
ilar works either in the New or in the Old World. And the 

60 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

giant enterprise was so planned that the prospective value 
of the land reclaimed from the bay was more than sufficient 
to cover all the expenses incident to the construction of 
these extensive docks and warehouses. 

But the avenues and docks just referred to embrace only 
a part of the improvements, undertaken or contemplated, 
for the embellishment of the city and for providing it with 
all the essentials of a great center of commerce and in- 
dustry. 

For, more important far than the embellishment of Rio 
de Janeiro, more important than magnificent buildings, 
public and private, more important than matchless parks 
and avenues, more important than the vast extent and per- 
fect equipment of dockage, was the huge undertaking which 
had for its object the sanitation of the nation's capital. 

Since its foundation the city of St. Sebastian had been 
a hot-bed of epidemic and endemic diseases of all kinds. 
Its dark, narrow, tortuous, noisome streets, the accumulated 
filth of generations in the bay and in the adjacent low- 
lands, the lack of the most necessary sanitary appliances 
and the complete ignoring of the fundamental principles of 
hygiene had bred smallpox, typhus and typhoid fevers, and 
numerous tropical diseases no less deadly. For nearly 
three centuries the hygienic condition of the city was little 
better than that of certain cities of India and China which 
have been plague centers from time immemorial. 

But it was especially in 1849 that Rio de Janeiro became 
a recognized pesthole — a great charnel house for foreigners 
and natives as well. During this year yellow fever — said 
to have been introduced from Central America — made its 
dread appearance. From that time, it was continuously 
endemic for more than fifty years. Its ravages were ap- 
palling ; the total number of its victims in Rio alone aggre- 
gated not less than sixty thousand. The population of the 
city was decimated at times; the dread destroyer carried 
away thousands in a few months: Like Santos, Rio became 

61 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

known abroad as ' ' the cemetery of the foreigner. ' ' During 
the sixties there were periods when there were hundreds of 
ships of all nations in the harbor with no one to look after 
them but a few panic-stricken watchmen. Officers and 
men had been mowed down by the death-dealing destroyer. 
And so frequently were the cables required to ' transmit 
sinister messages regarding the disastrous results occa- 
sioned by yellow fever that the telegraphic code contained 
no less than three pages of formulae relating to the per- 
nicious endemic. "Crew decimated by fever," "Freight 
rates augmented by fever," "Captain died of fever" — such 
were the messages constantly flashed from Bio and other 
Brazilian ports to shippers and shipmasters of Europe and 
the United States. 

Commerce was paralyzed, business was almost at a 
standstill. Rio, like Havana, Panama and Guayaquil, be- 
came a synonym for pestilence and death. Travelers 
avoided it, and seafaring men knew they were taking their 
lives in their hands when they entered the portals of the 
disease-infected metropolis. So great was the consterna- 
tion of the people, so impossible was it to control the 
frightful mortality of the city, so hopeless was the outlook 
for the future, that the government, as late as 1889, seri- 
ously contemplated the transfer of the capital to some ele- 
vated point in the interior of the country where the climate 
was more salubrious and where the plague might not find a 
foothold. 

It was not until 1906 that the government actually un- 
dertook the colossal task of the city's sanitation. It was 
confided to Dr. Lauro Miiller who was then minister of 
public works, the noted engineer Paulo Frontin, Dr. Pa- 
reira Passos, prefect of Rio, who has been surnamed the 
Brazilian Haussmann, and Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, a former 
pupil of Pasteur. No four better men could have been 
chosen for the stupendous work. They were all men of 
tireless energy and, in their several departments, repre- 

62 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

sented the best talent of the nation. They realized that 
the fate of the capital was in their hands, and they were 
determined that its future should be as glorious as its 
past had been disastrous. Those who were familiar with 
the difficulties which confronted these men felt that they 
were about to essay the impossible, but this only proved 
that they did not know the character and competence of 
those who had the work in charge. 

The problems that confronted the engineers and men of 
science in Eio de Janeiro were identical with those which 
had been so successfully solved by Colonel Gorgas and his 
gallant co-workers in Havana and Panama. Their solution 
depended almost wholly on the extermination of the Ano- 
pheles and the Stegomyia mosquitoes that are the prime 
cause of malarial and yellow fevers. This meant the de- 
struction of the breeding-places of these pestiferous insects. 
It meant the widening of many dark and malodorous streets, 
and the complete elimination of scores of others. It meant 
the demolition of more than two thousand buildings, and 
the renewal of entire sections of the city. It meant the 
removal of thousands of tons of garbage that had been 
scattered along the shore of the bay, and the disinfection 
and dumping into the depths of the Atlantic of tens of 
thousands of tons of filth that had for generations been 
accumulating in the shallow waters of the harbor. It 
meant the filling up of marshes and swamps, and exposed 
cloacae, and the constructing of up-to-date drains and sew- 
ers and aqueducts. It meant the enforcement of hygienic 
rules in every house and garden and the establishment of a 
trained corps of experts to wage incessant war on the dis- 
ease-propagating mosquitoes in all parts of the city and 
in every building, whether public or private. So assiduous 
was Dr. Cruz in his campaign against the Anopheles and 
Stegomyia that he earned the sobriquet of nata-mosquitos 
— mosquito-killer. 

When the work of beautifying and sanitating Rio de 

63 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Janeiro was begun, the old colonial quarter of the city 
was described as "a rare specimen of ugliness set by the 
hand of man in the midst of the most beautiful panorama 
of the world." This, together with what has been stated 
in the preceding paragraph, gives one some idea of the 
Herculean work which was involved in making Rio worthy 
of its noble setting. But, nothing daunted, the men charged 
with the renovation of the city entered upon their task with 
a determination that augured success, and, in spite of criti- 
cisms and predictions of" failure, were soon able to justify 
the confidence that had been reposed in them. 

But a few years sufficed to show how intelligently their 
efforts had been directed. What, in spite of its magnificent 
surroundings, had long been one of the most unsightly of 
capitals, was suddenly transformed into one of the most 
beautiful — everywhere adorned with noble buildings, 
matchless avenues, superb parks, squares and gardens. 
Where pestilence had long stalked unopposed through the 
city and where its "doomed inhabitants fell like grass be- 
fore the scythe, ' ' there now was found health and immunity 
from the plague which had reigned so ruthlessly for more 
than half a century. And from being one of the most un- 
healthful spots in the world it has been converted into one 
of the most salubrious. For the death-rate of Rio, like 
that of Panama, has been so reduced that it is below that of 
many large cities in the United States and in Europe. Yel- 
low fever has been effectually banished from what was one 
of its great strongholds and it is now no more of a menace 
in Rio than it is in Galveston or New Orleans. It has also 
been banished from the other great ports of Brazil from 
Santos to Manaos, and the precautions against a fresh out- 
break of the disease are now so complete that there is no 
longer any reason to apprehend its recurrence. Anyone 
who has visited the splendid Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, near 
Rio de Janeiro, with its perfectly equipped laboratories and 
its enthusiastic staff of investigators, will realize how de- 

64 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

termined is the Brazilian government to guarantee its peo- 
ple not only from the ravages but even from the menace of 
the plague. 

Loans aggregating $60,000,000 were floated by the gov- 
ernment for financing the various improvements just de- 
scribed. But this sum, large as it is, represents only a part 
of the money actually expended for the city's betterment, 
for private companies and individuals likewise contributed 
immense sums towards the marvelous transformation which 
so distinguishes the new Rio from the old. But it was 
money well spent, for the results achieved by its judicious 
expenditure gave a new impetus to Brazilian commerce and 
put Brazil herself in a position to work out her manifest 
destiny as one of the great nations of the world. 

Among the men whose foresight and enterprise have 
contributed most to this marvelous transformation of Rio 
de Janeiro is Dr. Lauro Miiller, whose recent visit to our 
country did so much to cement the previously existing 
friendship between Brazil and the United States of the 
North. As Minister of Public Works, he was for years the 
guiding spirit of all the great improvements made not only 
in Rio but also in Santos, Para and other parts of the re- 
public. His grandfather was a German immigrant and he 
certainly transmitted to the present minister of foreign af- 
fairs all the energy and strength of character that distin- 
guishes the best type of Teuton — qualities that have won 
for him not only the love and confidence of his countrymen 
but also the respect and admiration of foreigners as well. 

It is beside my purpose to speak of the commercial and 
industrial development of Rio de Janeiro, but reference 
must be made to two foreign companies which occupy a 
prominent position in the business world. One is locally 
known as A Luz — Light. This is the name given to the 
great syndicate which owns and controls the light, power, 
tramway and telephone systems of the city. Sir "William 
Mackenzie, of Toronto, Canada, is chairman of the com- 

65 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

pany, while the distinguished engineer, Mr. F. S. Pearson 
of New York, is its president. Suffice it to say that the 
capital of the company aggregates nearly $100,000,000, that 
it counts nearly ten thousand employees, and that its gross 
annual revenue totals more than $15,000,000. 

A still larger company is that known as the Brazil Rail- 
way Company. It is incorporated under the laws of the 
State of Maine and has a capital of $250,000,000. It not 
only owns and operates thousands of miles of railroads in 
Brazil, but it also owns and controls hundreds of thousands 
of head of cattle, millions of acres of grazing and timber 
lands, besides a dominant interest in other vast enterprises 
in all parts of the republic. The president of the company 
is Mr. Percival Farquhar of New York. I frequently heard 
him referred to by his admirers as "the man who owns 
everything in Brazil worth having. ' ' In Brazil the immense 
company, with all of its divers ramifications, of which he is 
the chief representative, is known simply as "Farquhar." 
So colossal and far-reaching, indeed, is the Farquhar syn- 
dicate that, only a short time before our arrival, a kind of 
a campaign was actually launched by certain members of 
the Brazilian Congress and by a part of the press of Rio 
de Janeiro against what was characterized as ' ' the Farqu- 
harizing of Brazil." Editors and legislators, who had so 
long been straining every nerve to induce foreigners to in- 
vest in Brazil, professed now to fear that the influx of for- 
eign capital was on the point of threatening the independent 
sovereignty of their country. When one considers the vast 
extent of Brazil and its boundless resources, one cannot but 
smile that anyone should have serious ground for appre- 
hension regarding the sovereignty of the nation, because 
of the enterprise and activities of any one company, how- 
ever rich or powerful. 

The churches in Rio de Janeiro are more than fifty in 
number and, as in all Latin- American cities, are conspicu- 
ous features, and are always sure to arrest the visitor's 

66 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

attention. Among the largest and most attractive of them 
are the cathedral and the Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Can- 
delaria. But in beauty of design and in majesty of con- 
ception none of these can compare with such noble and 
imposing structures as the cathedrals of Lima or Mexico, 
or even with the wonderful, but little known, cathedral of 
Cuzco. 

The picturesque little chapel of Nossa Senhora da Boa 
Viagem on an islet in Guanabara Bay is regarded as the 
special shrine of the Brazilian sailors. To seafaring men 
of Brazil, it is held in the same veneration as the beautiful 
church of Notre Dame de la Garde in Marseilles. But to 
the student of Brazilian history, a more interesting edifice 
is the Igreja de Sao Sebastiao, on the Morro do Castello. 
For it is not only the oldest church in the city — dating back 
to 1567 — but it is also the last resting place of Estacio de 
Sa, who, aided by his uncle, Mem de Sa, governor-general 
of Brazil, was the founder of the city. 

Rio de Janeiro is fairly well provided with primary and 
secondary schools, and with professional and technical in- 
stitutions of various kinds. But, what is most astonishing 
for a city as large and as wealthy as the capital of Brazil, 
is that it has no university. And more astonishing still 
is the fact that there is not, and never has been, a single 
university in the vast republic. In this respect, Brazil is 
far behind the other nations of Latin America, for, with 
one or two exceptions, they can all point to their university, 
and some of them to several institutions of this character. 
One needs instance only such homes of learning as the 
University of Cordoba, in Argentina, the Universities of 
Santiago, Quito, Bogota, and the venerable and far-famed 
University of San Marcos in Lima. 

The Brazilians, however, realize their backwardness in 
this respect, and this itself is a good augury for the future. 
For years past many of the more intelligent and enterpris- 
ing representatives of the country have been agitating for 

67 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the establishment of a first-class university, but so far they 
have been nothing more than voices in the wilderness. All 
they have accomplished, if anything, is to bring home to 
their countrymen the absolute necessity of having an in- 
stitution for university instruction, if they are to occupy 
their proper place among civilized nations. 

But, notwithstanding the lack of universities in Brazil, 
there is no lack of those having the title of doctor. They 
are even more numerous than in Bogota, where every col- 
lege professor, every newspaper editor, and every politi- 
cian, if he has any standing with his party, is dubbed ' ' doc- 
tor." In Rio de Janeiro, and elsewhere in the republic, 
even such professional men as civil engineers have this 
degree, and always proudly prefix it before their name. 
It is needless to say that the obtaining of such degree does 
not entail the long and serious course of study which a 
German student must make before his alma mater is willing 
to confer on him the coveted title of Philosophic Doc- 
tor. 1 

There are many Brazilians, as there are many from 
other parts of South America, who have made their studies 
in the universities of Europe and the United States. And 
among these there is a goodly number who have carried 
away the highest honors of their class. That the number 
of Brazilian students in our institutions of learning is grad- 
ually increasing is a hopeful sign and presages well, not 
only for the continued development of friendly relations 
between the two greatest republics of the Western Hemi- 
sphere, but also for the establishment, in the not distant 
future, of universities similar to our own, not only in Rio 
de Janeiro but also in other important centers of the re- 
public. For, judging from the Brazilians whom it was my 
pleasure to meet, who were graduates from foreign institu- 
tions of learning, the Brazilian student of today worthily 

X A few years ago Brazil abolished all academic titles as being undemo- 
cratic. Certificates are now given instead of degrees. 

68 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

upholds the best traditions of his forefathers in the famed 
university of Coimbra. 

For an evidence of their scholarship and intellectual 
capacity it is not necessary to inquire about their past 
achievements in literature and science. It suffices to glance 
through the pages of some of their leading magazines, 
several of which are beautifully illustrated, or to read the 
masterly articles in some of the daily papers of Eio de 
Janeiro. I need instance only such dailies as Jornal do 
Commercio, Pais, and Jornal do Brazil. The first-named 
journal was founded in 1827, and is by far the best and most 
important news organ in Brazil. Not only that, but there 
are few newspapers in the United States or Europe which 
are better edited, or more dignified, or which make a 
greater and a more successful effort to supply their readers 
with the news of the world. In it appear articles from 
the pens of the greatest literary lights of Brazil — articles 
which are frequently exquisite specimens of Portuguese 
literature and conclusive proofs of the capabilities of ex- 
pression of the noble language of Camoens and Nogueira 
Ramos. 

I have referred, in passing, to the rare beauty of Guana- 
bara Bay as seen from the deck of a steamer, and have 
briefly noted some of the more attractive features of the 
city, as observed while driving through its picturesque 
streets and palm-lined avenues. I would fain dwell on the 
floral splendor of its parks, its flower-decked squares and, 
above all, the Edenic homes which it was my privilege to 
visit. Among such homes was one near the Beira Mar 
Drive, while another was on the heights of Santa Thereza 
■ — the home of my good and faithful guide and companion 
whose unfailing kindness to me during my sojourn in the 
city beautiful shall always be among the most cherished 
recollections of my journeys in many lands. I should love 
to tell of the marvels of the famous Botanic Garden, with 
its countless species of plants and trees, with its superb 

69 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

colonnade of Oreodoxa oleracea palms; its archways of 
delicate bamboo ; its displays of Victoria regia ; its groves 
of clove and cinnamon and nutmeg and other exotic trees, 
which waft their rich perfumes through the air ; its tangles 
of rose bushes; its graceful fern trees; its crimson poin- 
settia ; its glimpses of virgin forest with garlands of vines 
and festoons of flower-and-foliage-laden lianas which, like 
gay draperies, hang from the outstretched branches of the 
rubber tree or the giant pirrjao. With the exception of the 
botanical garden of Para there is probably no spot in the 
world which offers a more gorgeous display of Flora's 
wonders or exhibits them in greater exuberance and per- 
fection. 

All these things are beautiful, it is true, and the visitor 
to Eio will wish to linger long in silent contemplation of 
such marvels of plant and tree, foliage and bloom. But 
there are other and greater attractions — attractions which 
give Eio de Janeiro a distinctive cachet and render it abso- 
lutely unique among the world's great capitals. I refer to 
the truly magnificent views which are obtainable from the 
summits of the Pao d'Assucar and Corcovado. 

The summit of Sugar Loaf is now easily reached by 
means of an aerial cable-car which was put in operation in 
1912. Before this time the ascent of this gaunt old sentinel 
of Guanabara Bay was considered so difficult that no one 
thought of climbing to its dizzy heights. The story, how- 
ever, is told that, previous to the construction of the aerial 
cable-way, two persons actually did succeed in scaling Pao 
d'Assucar. One was an English midshipman, who hoisted 
the Union Jack, and the other was a patriotic Chicago girl, 
who planted the Stars and Stripes in its place. 

There is a well-kept buffet on the top of the peak and 
my fidus Achates, who seemed to have no thought but my 
pleasure and comfort, had planned for me a most agreeable 
surprise. It was a luncheon there with some young friends 
of his whom I had met on our arrival in Eio, and whom I 

70 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

had learned to admire and esteem. I knew nothing about 
my friend's plans until we stepped out of the car. Then I 
was suddenly greeted by a vivacious young carioca who 
exclaimed : ' ' There is nothing here for you. We have eaten 
everything." She had scarcely uttered these words, how- 
ever, when she and her merry companions gathered around 
us and escorted us to a table at which we had a most de- 
lightful repast al fresco, with the most charming of hosts 
and hostesses. 

Luncheon over, we were prepared for the enjoyment of 
more gorgeous panoramas than any we had previously 
gazed on, even in this city of magnificent vistas. The point 
where we stood commanded views of every part of the city 
and bay, of the surrounding mountains, and of the broad 
expanse of the azure At] antic. But what, at the moment, 
impressed me more even than the matchless views which 
broke on our vision at every side was the thought that we 
were standing on a pinnacle which had witnessed so many 
stirring events in the history of Brazil and had arrested 
the attention of many men whose names are most conspicu- 
ous in the annals of South American exploration and con- 
quest. 

It was at the foot of this giant monolith, nearly fourteen 
hundred feet high, that Estacio de Sa landed when he laid 
the foundations of what was destined to become the capital 
of one of the world's greatest republics. It was on Gover- 
nor 's Island, in the northern part of the bay, where his life 
was cut short by an Indian 's arrow. Magellan, during his 
epoch-making circumnavigation of the globe, four centuries 
ago, anchored his fleet here for a fortnight. He then pro- 
ceeded to solve ' ' The Mystery of the Strait, ' ' which had so 
eluded the efforts of Columbus, by discovering the passage 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific that has since borne his 
name. 

In the southern part of the bay is a low, fortified island 
which is named after the French Vice- Admiral, Chevalier 

71 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

de Villegaignon, who built a fort here which was to be 
the beginning of a large Huguenot colony that was to be 
established on the mainland. Already the French fancied 
themselves in possession of the entire continent to which 
they gave the name France Antarctique. And had Estacio 
de Sa and his allies shown less activity and resolution ' ' this 
country which now contains the capital of Brazil . . . 
would have been at this day French. ' ' x But, as in Nou- 
velle France in the north, their dominion over the territory 
claimed by them was of short duration. 

In 1808 the royal family of Portugal — driven out of the 
land of their birth by Napoleon — entered the Bay of Guana- 
bara, and for thirteen years made Eio de Janeiro the seat 
of the Portuguese Court. During the following sixty-seven 
years Brazil was an independent empire, and then, in 1889, 
Dom Pedro II — a savant and ruler who commanded the 
admiration of the world — was notified that he and the im- 
perial family must leave Brazil within twenty-four hours. 
And at two o'clock in the morning they embarked on a 
Brazilian warship from which they were transferred to a 
steamer that conveyed them to Lisbon. With a total ab- 
sence of demonstration, either friendly or hostile, they 
passed out of the Bay of Guanabara in which, eighty years 
before, the emperor's grandfather, Dom Joao VI, had been 
received with such manifestations of joy and delight. With- 
out war or bloodshed, the last vestiges of monarchy had 
disappeared from the Western Hemisphere and Brazil had 
become one of the great sisterhood of American republics. 

Never in the world's history had so stupendous a change 
been effected so quickly and so peacefully. There was no 
struggle, no fratricidal strife. But this was thanks to the 

x Southy, "History of Brazil," Vol. I, p. 314, London, 1823. Gaffarel in 
his "Histoire du Bresil Frangais au Seizieme Siecle, " referring to Rio de 
Janeiro observes sadly: "Elle anrait pu etre franchise; grace a, nos fautes elle 
devint portugaise. Ce n'etait pas la premiere et ce ne sera sans doute la der- 
niere fois que nous avons seme et que d'autres plus adroits et plus patients ont 
recolte. P. 350, Paris, 1878. 

72 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

venerable emperor, Dom Pedro, who for nearly half a cen- 
tury had guided the destinies of the empire to which he 
was ever bound by the strongest ties of love and devotion. 
Averse, by temperament and education, to all useless vio- 
lence, he resigned himself to the inevitable. Majestically 
and without a word of bitterness, he quietly chose the road 
to exile, in which he died two years later. 1 His last words, 
addressed in his farewell manifesto to the people of Brazil 
before leaving its shores forever, were words of benedic- 
tion and a prayer for the welfare and prosperity of the 
land which had always been the chief object of his thoughts 
and affections. 

As an evidence of how fondly he is still remembered, it 
suffices to state that for some time past a movement has 
been on foot to have his remains brought back to his natal 
land and given a worthy resting-place in the capital which 
he loved so much. 

While immersed in reverie, recalling the notable events 
of which Pao d'Assucar had been for centuries the mute 
witness, and enraptured by the magic of the Bay of Guana- 
bara, whose enchanted islands seemed like gigantic galleys 
setting sail for fairyland, I was suddenly awakened by the 
gentle voice of one beside me who said: "You think this 
beautiful ; but wait until you ascend Corcovado ; wait until 
you visit Tijuca. Then you will be even more pleased than 
you are here." 

It did not seem possible that any point could offer more 
entrancing pictures than the lofty pinnacle on which we 
were then standing. But a few days later I had an oppor- 
tunity of realizing the truth of my friend 's prediction. We 
visited both Corcovado and Tijuca and the hours spent in 
the contemplation of the wonders seen from their wooded 
heights were hours of uninterrupted rapture. 

Corcovado is nearly a thousand feet higher than Pao 

1 Prince Louis d 'Orleans — Bragance, in ' ' Sous La Croix du Sud, ' ' p. 19, 
Paris, 1912. 

73 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

d'Assucar, while the peak of Tijuca rises more than a thou- 
sand feet above the summit of Corcovado. This increase 
in elevation gives a corresponding increase in the range of 
vision and in the marvels of aerial perspective. But, besides 
this, we have in the two highest peaks a wealth of vegeta- 
tion that is entirely absent from the almost barren rock of 
Pao d'Assucar. And we have, too, facilities for studying 
at our leisure the wonders of forest growth which clothes 
the flanks of both Corcovado and Tijuca from base to 
summit. 

The ascent of Corcovado is effected by a carefully con- 
structed rack and pinion railway, while the glories of Tiju- 
ca may easily be reached by carriage or automobile. 

With a wisdom that cannot be too highly commended, 
the government has forbidden the cutting down of trees 
on the mountains surrounding Rio de Janeiro. For this 
reason, one may find the virgin forest in all its wealth of 
tree and vine and shrub within a few minutes ' drive from 
the heart of the city. And to preserve in its entirety the 
aspect of this forest primeval, the law for the protection 
of game and all harmless wild animals is as strictly en- 
forced as it is in our Yellowstone Park. Nowhere are the 
happy results of such legislation more clearly manifested 
than along the roads and pathways of Tijuca and Corco- 
vado. Being unmolested, the denizens of the forest become 
accustomed to the presence of man and many species of 
them are frequently seen during the course of a single hour 
— species, too, that in our northern lands are never seen 
outside a menagerie. 

As we were looking out of the car on our way to the 
summit of Corcovado, my companion called my attention 
to a tree that was completely stripped of its leaves. 
"That," he said, "is the work of the sloth. It is very fond 
of the leaves of this species of tree and it makes the tree 
its home until it has devoured its foliage, when it goes 
to another and treats it in the same manner." 

74 




PQ 



M 
< 

o 

a 



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SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

But what particularly arrested my attention was the 
immense number of butterflies of every size and hue. They 
seemed to be fully as numerous as in certain parts of the 
Amazon valley, which, since the time of Bates, has been the 
favorite hunting-grounds for these beautiful insects by en- 
tomologists from all parts of the world. In the immediate 
vicinity of Eio de Janeiro, there are no fewer than eight 
hundred species of butterflies. Among these are many rep- 
resentatives of the wonderful celestial blue Morpho, some 
of which have an expanse of wing of no less than seven 
inches. As seen floating through the perfumed air of the 
dim solitudes of the tropical forest, I could well fancy them 
as the sylphs of the morning basking in the sunshine, or 
as the elves of eve seeking their home in the moonbeams. 
The poetess, Jane Catulle Mendez, brings them before us 
in all their beauty when she depicts them with "Couleur de 
tons les cieux et de toute la mer" — color of all the skies 
and of all the sea. 

The summit of Corcovado is provided with a graceful 
open pavilion — Chapeo do Sol — and a stone balcony, where 
one finds a prospect that at once enthralls attention and 
excites emotion, even in the breast of the most blase world- 
roamer. Far beneath us is the radiant city of Eio de 
Janeiro, held in the heart of the woods. The homes of its 
people glow with gold melting into the green of the gardens 
and parks. The Bay of Guanabara glimmers with silver, 
while its palm-covered inlets along the shore are liquid 
mazes of turquoise and aquamarine. The islands that sleep 
in its tranquil bosom seem veiled in a flickering haze tinged 
with green and gold. Ships of all sizes are seen creeping 
into the harbor from the broad Atlantic and saluting other 
craft that are slowly gliding out into the ocean's immense 
expanse. Tijuca and the Serra dos Orgaos are still draped 
in the delicate white mist of the morning, but, under the 
magical action of the sun, it is soon dispersed into a sparkle 
of opal and topaz. Through the climbing valleys that are 

75 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

seen on every side there are marvelous harmonies of color 
— of emerald and sapphire, of amber and amethyst. Light 
and shadow play almost mystically over the landscape. A 
delicate, drowsy languor seems to hang upon the city — 
the home of happy shadows and dancing sunbeams. It is 
like one of the glorious dreams of Titian, one of the superb 
visions of Turner. 

It is related that Mohammed, while yet a camel-driver, 
looked upon Damascus from a neighboring mountain, but 
refused to enter it, lest he should there be tempted to fore- 
go the glories of Paradise. Would he have been proof 
against temptation could he have caught a glimpse of 
Brazil's city beautiful from the summit of Corcovado? 

On our way down from Corcovado 's summit we stopped 
at Paneiras, where there is a small and well-patronized 
hotel. I found here a young couple from New York, who 
were spending a part of their honeymoon in this entranc- 
ing spot. They could not have selected a quieter, or a more 
lovely place. There is a beautiful promenade along the 
Carioca aqueduct which dates from colonial times and 
which, until recently, supplied the city with delicious water. 
The aqueduct is built after the style of the old Eoman 
conduits and will bear comparison with the most noted 
structures of this kind in the Campagna. Its starting-point 
is several miles above Paneiras in the depth of the dark, 
tangled forest which envelops the mountain. The path 
parallels the aqueduct for many miles and is the most 
charming promenade imaginable. 

"When I wish to get away from the noise of the city 
and the stress and strain of business," said my companion, 
"I come here for a few days and then I return to work 
thoroughly refreshed." I fear I envied him this silent 
retreat, where he could enjoy, at one and the same time, 
all the beauties of wild nature and all the delights of re- 
freshing solitude. 

What interested me almost as much as the transcend- 

76 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

ent loveliness of this place was an Indian tradition about 
the virtues of the water of Carioca. Like that of the Cas- 
talian spring on Mt. Parnassus, it is said to give inspira- 
tion to those who drink it. Is that the reason why poesy 
and eloquence are so common among the people of Kio de 
Janeiro? If not, it is, at all events, true that Tijuca's crys- 
tal stream, canopied with tropic bush and tree, is incom- 
parably more beautiful and picturesque than the unadorned 
rivulet that courses from the Fountain of the Muses down 
the treeless slope of Parnassus. 

No one who has made the ascent of Pao d'Assucar or 
Corcovado can ever forget his thrills of rapture as he 
contemplated the wonders of city, bay, mountain and ocean, 
as viewed from these giddy heights. But there are views 
equally superb to be had from many lookouts on the heights 
of Tijuca. In addition to these, there has been constructed 
through the forest-clad slopes of this lofty mountain one 
of the most picturesque and fascinating drives that can 
be imagined. For twelve miles, or more, there is a con- 
tinual succession of pictures such as one can find only in 
the tropics and in the most favored spots of the cloud- 
cleaving Cordilleras. 

Day or night, there is nothing more restful and stimulat- 
ing than the Tijuca drive. To the wearied senses and to 
the jaded mind it is a tonic whose action is immediate. For, 
whether one surveys the wonders of nature at and around 
the Alto da Boa Vista, or from the Emperor's Table, or 
from the Vista Chineza, or from Bom Retiro, or from Ex- 
celsior, one is sure to experience everywhere a new thrill 
of delight. All the emotions are stirred and the intellect 
is wakened to unwonted activity. Even the most phleg- 
matic temperament is whipped to instant alertness. 

Colonel Roosevelt and I met at the Emperor's Table, 
and both of us stood for some time in silent ecstasy at the 
marvelous panorama spread out before and beneath us. 
Never before or since have I seen the Colonel so completely 

77 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

under the subtle spell of Nature's witchery. After gazing 
silently for some time, he turned towards me and ex- 
claimed with unsuppressed emotion, "Wonderful! wonder- 
ful ! I have never seen anything more surpassingly beau- 
tiful." 

Everywhere, on both sides of the road, we have the wild, 
unkempt luxuriance of the tropical forest. There are the 
secular giants of the woodlands, with tall, massive trunks 
and noble crowns of green and silver. There are vast 
stretches of cedar and jacaranda, of paroba and samambaia, 
of palm and aroeira and tree-fern, of cinnamon, jequitiba, 
and candelabra, casting masses of shade and lifting their 
gently waving boughs towards the dazzling, life-giving sun. 
The clear mountain air is vibrant with the whirr of myriads 
of insects, and rings with the voices of countless birds in 
the shadows of the trees. The vagrant movements of thou- 
sands of butterflies of the most brilliant hues enliven the 
scene, while the silvery voices of streams by the wayside 
make perpetual melody. The whole mountain, with its wild 
turmoil of rocks and ravines, seems to be quivering with 
golden light and with delicate, ethereal harmonies. The 
wildness of nature and the bosky twilight are full of ro- 
mance, while the warm and caressing atmosphere, the scents 
of hidden flowers, and the charm of remoteness and tran- 
quillity make one fancy one is in a land of dreams, or in a 
region of enchantment. 

I could then understand, better than ever before, the 
frame of mind of Homer's lotus-eaters, and felt that it 
would be no renunciation to spend the rest of one's days in 
a land where Nature, in all her manifestations, is so su- 
premely, so ravishingly beautiful. 

I was never able to decide, while in Eio de Janeiro, at 
what hour of the day the city and its matchless surround- 
ings are seen at the best — whether in the early morning, 
when white, fleecy mists hang over Tijuca and the Serra 
dos Orgaos; or at noontide, when the houses along Beira 

78 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

Mar gleam in the golden sunshine and the stately palm 
trees toss their noble crowns towards the bright, blue sky ; 
or at sunset when mountain peak and terrace are suffused 
with rose and violet and all seems translucent with a magic 
glow ; or in the soft, pearly moonlight, when calm and peace 
hover over the landscape and make it in very truth A Ci- 
dade de Sonho — the home of dreams. 

The last afternoon I spent in the city beautiful, I said 
to a friend, "Let us take a drive along the bay and the 
ocean ; I wish to get a last view of the city, as the sun sinks 
behind the mountains." It was an hour or two before 
sunset. The air was balmy and laden with the fragrance of 
flowers and spices. From the sea came a cool and gentle 
breeze which had a savory freshness that is peculiar to the 
ocean. On one side of us was the enchanting Bay of Guana- 
bara whose 

" — Islands empurpled bright, 
Floated amid the livelier light,' ' 

and on the other were 

" — Mountains that like giants stand, 
To sentinel enchanted land." 

As the afternoon wanes and the evening comes on apace, 
the fascination of our environment increases, and God is 
felt in nature with an intensity that is startling. 

Presently one notes changing wonders of light over 
mountains and sea. The bay gleams with gold, the city is 
touched with a soft, roseate flush, while Gavea, Corcovado 
and the Serra dos Orgaos are covered with a delicate veil 
of purple and violet. 

1 ' 'Ioorre^avos \ — the city of the violet crown ! " I exclaimed. 
For Rio de Janeiro then appeared to me, as did Athens 
to Aristophanes, when he applied to it the graphic epi- 

79 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tliet by which it has ever since been known. And as 
Athens is garlanded by the air-empurpled heights of Hy- 
mettus, Pentelicus and Lycabettus, so also is Brazil's cap- 
ital crowned with a canopy of violet and purple which rests 
on its magic circle of serra and morro. 

' ' What, ' ' I asked my companion, ' ' what marvelous crea- 
tions would not the old Greeks, with their highly developed 
mythopceic faculty, have given us if they had had such 
unequaled material to work on as we here behold? With 
surroundings far less grandiose and inspiring, they were 
able to personify the powers of earth, air and water, of 
streams, forests and mountains, in a manner that has never 
been approached by the people of any other nation. But 
with an island-studded bay like Guanabara, and crystalline 
streams like Carioca, and lovely cascades like Itamar ; with 
caverns and grottoes like those named after Agassiz and 
Paul and Virginia, with forest-clad mountains like Trjuca, 
Corcovado and the Serra dos Orgaos which are incom- 
parably more beautiful than Helicon or Parnassus or 
Olympus, to stimulate their genius, they would have peo- 
pled all these places with gods and goddesses, with nymphs 
and centaurs in a way that would have far surpassed even 
their best efforts in the favored land of Hellas. ' ' 

All this, I know, reads like a rhapsody, but it is difficult 
not to be rhapsodical when one is standing in the presence 
of what is so marvelously, so ineffably beauteous. It has 
been my privilege to visit most of the world's great cities 
and to contemplate many of the most enchanting panoramas 
of five continents, but there are few — very few — of all these 
places which have fully met my anticipations ; which, like 
Eio de Janeiro and its surroundings, have given me that 
rarest of sensations, perfect satisfaction. 

More than this, I felt then, and I feel now, that if I had 
to spend all the rest of my days in any one city, I should 
prefer to spend them in Eio de Janeiro. And I should make 
my choice without the slightest hesitation. Its delightful 

80 



SOUTH AMERICA'S CITY BEAUTIFUL 

and equable climate, 1 its salubrious atmosphere, its gor- 
geous landscapes, all contribute to make it unique among 
cities and as near an approach to a terrestrial paradise as 
the world can offer. 

One of the most trying experiences incident to traveling 
in foreign lands, as every traveler knows, is the tearing 
oneself away from generous hosts and newly made friends, 
from places in which one would willingly, if time or 
duty permitted, tarry for months and years. I have 
often experienced the pain of parting in many parts of the 
world, but never so much as when leaving the Ville Mer- 
veilleuse of Brazil. Only one word in any language I know 
fully expressed my feelings as I clasped the hands of the 
many good friends who had come to the station to bid us 
farewell and wish us Godspeed on our long and strenuous 
journey. 2 That is the eloquent Portuguese word saudade — 
a word which signifies regret at leaving and an intense de- 
sire to see again persons and things we have learned to 
love — that longing for the past which, in the words of Ca- 
moens, is pure, bitter-sweet torment — Tormento puro, doce 
e magoado. 

I then recalled the words of the Portuguese novelist, 
Eca Queiroz, about the people of Brazil, who declares "Os 
homens tern intelligencia; as mulheres tern belleza; ambos 
a mais bella, a melhor das qualidades — a bondade." 3 It 

1 The mean temperature of Eio de Janeiro, based on observations extending 
over a period of forty years, is 70° F. Its lowest temperature is 41° F., while 
the thermometer never reaches the heights frequently attained in Washington, 
Chicago and New York. During the extreme heats of summer the people of 
Rio de Janeiro have always an agreeable refuge in Petropolis and other near 
mountain towns where the climate is delightful. 

2 Dr. Lauro Miiller, the minister of foreign affairs, who took a very special 
interest in our expedition, was also among those who came to the station to 
speed the parting guests. As he bade me a cordial good-bye, he said in the 
kindliest manner: "You men from the United States of the North are going 
to make known to us Brazilians a part of our country of which we are still 
ignorant. ' ' 

"The men have intelligence; the women beauty; both, the most beautiful 
and the best of qualities — goodness. 

81 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

was the goodness of the people of the world's City Beauti- 
ful that most strongly appealed to me, and, when bidding 
them adieu, I felt that I was leaving with them a part of 
my heart — a feeling which a French writer has so well ex- 
pressed when he says: "Partir . . . c'est mourir un peu." 



CHAPTER V 

AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

A little more than three and a half centuries ago, thir- 
teen Jesuit missionaries went from Sao Vincente, near the 
present city of Santos, to the plains of Piritininga to es- 
tablish a colony among the Indians, whom they wished to 
evangelize and civilize. They celebrated mass there for 
the first time on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, 
and for this reason they named their new home Sao Paulo. 
They then proceeded immediately to erect a college, which 
was likewise called Sao Paulo. It was at first a very modest 
structure, for its walls were of wattle-work, its roof of 
straw, and its dimensions were only ten by fourteen paces. 
But small as it was, it had to serve for school, dormitory, 
kitchen, refectory, storeroom, and infirmary. All the in- 
mates slept in hammocks. And, as the building was not 
provided with a chimney, it was so often filled with smoke 
that teachers and pupils found it, even during the cold 
of winter, more endurable to have classes in the open air. 
A young aspirant to the priesthood, whose father was a 
Spaniard and whose mother was a native of the Canary 
Islands, was in charge of the school. His name was Jose 
de Anchieta — a name that was destined to reflect glory not 
only on the religious society of which he was a member 
but also on the land of his adoption. For, while the young 
Jesuit was teaching the Indians and Mamelucos 1 Latin, 

1 The name — in English, Mamelukes — given in Brazil to the offspring of a 
Negro and an Indian. It is also employed to designate the slave-dealers — 
mostly of Portuguese and Indian blood — who created such havoc in the Reduc- 
tions of Paraguay and who extended their raids through Matto Grosso as far 

83 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

he was learning from them their own language — the Tupi. 
And it was in this primitive structure that he began his 
famous grammar and dictionary of the lingua geral which 
are still the best in existence. It was here, too, that he 
wrote hymns in Latin, Spanish, Tupi and Portuguese for 
his pupils and entered upon that career of literary activity 
which has caused him to be regarded as the father of 
Brazilian literature. 1 

No better place could have been selected for a town. 
Located in a temperate region and on a plateau twenty- 
four hundred feet above sea-level, it was an admirable 
site for a great city. The soil of the surrounding coun- 
try was fertile and well watered by numerous streams 
and rivers. It produced fruits of the temperate as well 
as of the tropical zone and its climate was delightful. 

And no better man than Anchieta could have been se- 
lected to civilize and Christianize the Indians. He loved 
them more than home or country, and devoted himself 
unremittingly, during a long and busy life, to their tem- 
poral and spiritual welfare. Not since the days of Las 
Casas had the aborigines had an abler defender or a more 
zealous protector. 

A town founded in such a favorable place was bound 
to grow and prosper. And the influence of such a man 
as Anchieta, on both the Indians and the Portuguese, was 
sure to be felt not only during his lifetime but for genera- 
tions afterwards. All his efforts were directed towards 

as the Amazon. This "perverse generation," as Charlevoix calls them, "car- 
ried their disorders of every kind to such an excess, that, in process of time, 
they came to be called Mamelus, on account of their great resemblance to those 
slaves of the ancient sultans of Egypt. ' ' " The History of Paraguay, ' ' Vol. I, 
p. 212, London, 1769. 

1 " O Padre Anchieta nao f oi so o mais antigue vulto da litteratura bra- 
zileira, porem o seu inicial factor." Mello Moraes Filho, in "Parnaso Bra- 
zileiro," Vol. I, p. 4, in the appendix. Bio de Janeiro, 1885. 

His poem of more than five thousand verses on the Blessed Virgin was 
written while he was a hostage of the Tamoyo Indians. Not having pen, ink 
or paper, he wrote it in the sand and then committed it to memory. 

84 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

having the two races live in peace and harmony. And 
being of a peculiarly sympathetic nature, he was able to 
get nearer the hearts of the Mamelucos than could most 
Europeans whose pride of birth made them hold aloof from 
half-breeds, as well as from Indians, as beings of a lower 
caste. 

The foregoing were some of the reflections suggested by 
my first view of Sao Paulo — in population the second city 
in Brazil, in energy and enterprise the first. The mustard 
seed that had been planted by Anchieta and his confreres 
had become the greatest among herbs. 1 

Sao Paulo is often called the Chicago, and the Paulistas 
the Yankees of Brazil. Both epithets are well merited, for 
in no other part of the republic will one find greater busi- 
ness activity, keener or more successful representatives 
of commerce and industry than here in the city and state 
of Sao Paulo. 

Like Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo shows a colonial city 
within a modern one — a city of narrow tortuous streets 
within an encircling metropolis of broad and attractive 
avenues. The Rua do Ouvidor of Sao Paulo is the street 
called the Fifteenth of November, which is always a center 
of animation and commercial activity. In the older part 
of the city, as well as in the more modern, one will find 
large and imposing stores and office buildings, many of 
which are beautiful specimens of architecture. All of them 
are veritable beehives of business enterprise, and remind 
one of the feverish movement which characterizes the mer- 
cantile centers of New York and Chicago. The state and 
municipal buildings are quite worthy of the great and 
rich commonwealth of Sao Paulo and are among the most 
notable structures of the kind in the republic. Among 
these is the Municipal Theater, which, like that of the 

1 For interesting accounts of the beginnings of Sao Paulo and the labors 
of Padre Anchieta, see ' ' Chronica da Companhia de Jesu do Estado do Brazil, ' ' 
Vol. II, pp. 58, 59, by Simao de Vasconcellos, Lisbon, 1865, and "Vie du 
Venerable Joseph Anchieta, ' ' Chap. IV, by Charles Sainte-Foy, Paris, 1858. 

85 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

federal capital, is modeled after L' Opera of Paris. It 
is, however, larger than that of Rio de Janeiro and, being 
located in an open space, produces a much better effect 
than the one in the restricted quarter of the national capi- 
tal. There is no theater in the United States that at all 
approaches it architecturally and its noble facade, adorned 
with thirty-two rose-granite columns — all monoliths — 
makes it one of the most imposing edifices of the kind in 
the world. It, like many other of the city's attractive build- 
ings, is the work of a Sao Paulo architect, Dr. Ramos de 
Azevedo. 

But probably the noblest specimen of architecture in 
Sao Paulo, if not in Brazil, is the work of the Italian ar- 
chitect, Bezzi, who has designed a series of palaces of 
marked originality and beauty. This is the splendid monu- 
ment of Ipiranga, erected on an eminence near the city, 
where Dom Pedro I, on September 8, 1822, proclaimed the 
independence of Brazil from Portugal. It is now used as a 
zoological and ethnographical museum, and is, with the 
famous Museo Goeldi of Para, the best in Brazil. Colonel 
Roosevelt and I spent several delightful and instructive 
hours within its walls, and thanks to the courtesy of its 
eminent curator, Dr. von Ihering, a German naturalist of 
international fame, we were able to examine its many rare 
treasures under the most favorable auspices. Like the 
Museum of Para, it is particularly rich in specimens illus- 
trating the fauna and the peculiar ethnographic features 
of Brazil and is one of the institutions that no visitor to 
Sao Paulo should fail to visit. 

Another institution that Colonel Roosevelt and I found 
intensely interesting was the Instituto Serumtherapico of 
Butantan, in the suburbs of the city. From an architec- 
tural standpoint it does not at all compare with the grandi- 
ose museum of Ipiranga, although it is a large and attrac- 
tive edifice and well adapted for the purpose for which it 
is used. In many ways the work of the institute is quite 

86 





Museum of Ypieanga. Sao Paulo. 




Ecclesiastical Seminary. Sao Paulo. 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

unique. For, in addition to scientific research, it prepares 
various serums and vaccines for diphtheria, smallpox and 
other infectious diseases. But its principal and most re- 
markable products are serums which have been discovered 
by the eminent director of the institute, Dr. Vidal Brazil. 
These serums are used for treating snake-bites and are of 
three different kinds. One is an antidote for the poison 
of the rattlesnake. Another is used to counteract the 
deadly venom of the jararaca, the urutu and various spe- 
cies of the much dreaded lachesis. The third is employed 
as a prophylactic against the poison of any serpent what- 
ever, and is of special value when it is not known by what 
species of reptile one has been bitten. 

The work of the Instituto Serumtherapico is carried on 
in essentially the same manner as that of the celebrated 
Institut Pasteur in Paris. And the method of preparing 
the antiophidic serums is based on the same principles. 
In Brazil, where there are so many venomous serpents and 
where the poorer classes, in consequence of going bare- 
footed, are frequently bitten by them, the serums of Dr. 
Brazil have been instrumental in saving countless lives. 
In a single year, it is estimated, the number of persons 
bitten by noxious serpents in Brazil totals nearly twenty 
thousand. Of these about one-fourth die from the wounds 
inflicted. In cases, however, in which the antitoxin is ad- 
ministered in time there are practically no deaths. The 
serum is quite as efficacious as the antitoxin for rabies, 
and the percentage of lives saved by the timely use of one 
antidote is about the same as that of the other. Indeed, it 
is scarcely an exaggeration to say that in the tropics, where 
venomous reptiles are so numerous and virulent, Dr. Bra- 
zil's treatment for snake-bites is as important and as be- 
neficent as is that of the great Pasteur for hydrophobia. 

But Dr. Brazil has achieved far more than discovering 
an antitoxin for the venom of reptiles. He has, by a for- 
tunate accident, found a non-venomous snake that not only 

87 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

kills the venomous species but also devours them. This 
is the mussurama, a superb species of ophidian, which is 
as courageous in the presence of the lachesis and crotalus 
as it is inoffensive to man. Like the mongoose of India, the 
mussurama seems to be endowed with a mortal hatred of 
venomous reptiles of all kinds, and it seeks for them with 
the same pertinacity that a good Scotch terrier pursues 
a rat. 

After Dr. Brazil had taken us through his laboratory 
and had shown us his ophidiarium which contains, for ex- 
perimental purposes, hundreds of noxious reptiles from all 
parts of Brazil, he placed on the table a splendid specimen 
of the mussurama, between three and four feet long. It 
seemed almost torpid and quite indifferent to the attention 
it was receiving. After the Doctor had caressed it, to show 
how harmless it was, he put it again on the table and placed 
near it a jararaca almost as large as itself. Immediately 
the mussurama shook off its torpidity and, like a flash, 
made a dart for the head of the jararaca. The struggle was 
fierce but short-lived. For the mussurama soon had its 
enemy's head in its mouth and then proceeded to swallow 
it bodily. In a few minutes the deadly jararaca was inside 
of the mussurama, and there was on the table only one 
snake — but almost twice the size it was a few moments be- 
fore — instead of two. 

I never saw Colonel Roosevelt more interested in any- 
thing than in this extraordinary contest between these two 
reptiles. He took the mussurama up in his hands and after 
examining it attentively, he exclaimed with enthusiasm: 
"It is marvelous — marvelous! I never saw anything like 
it in my life. I would not have missed seeing this for any- 
thing.' 9 The victor was then restored to his cage, where 
he was permitted to digest his gruesome meal without 
further molestation. 

It is the purpose of the government of Sao Paulo to 
encourage the propagation of the mussurama as an aid in 

88 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

the extermination of the venomous serpents that are found 
in such numbers in so many parts of the country. If the 
experiment shall prove as successful as anticipated, the 
same method for the destruction of noxious reptiles will 
doubtless be introduced in other parts of the republic, as 
well as in the West Indian Islands, where the terrible fer- 
de-lance claims annually so many victims. 

The streets and parks and homes of Sao Paulo were for 
me an uninterrupted source of delight and admiration. 
Everywhere — along the broad avenues, around the beauti- 
ful villas and princely palacetes, in the numerous breathing 
spots found in all parts of the city — there is an astonishing 
profusion of plants and trees of both the tropical and 
the temperate zones. So great is the variety of trees bor- 
dering streets and avenues that no two thoroughfares seem 
to exhibit the same species. In their beauty and luxuri- 
ance, they remind one of the wonderful arboreal displays 
of Para and Bio de Janeiro. None of our cities in the 
United States, except possibly Washington, can offer any- 
thing to compare with the magnificent exhibition of tree 
and flower which so charm the visitor at every turn. 

Many of the residences in the aristocratic quarters of 
the city interested me immensely. The styles of archi- 
tecture seemed to be as numerous as the houses themselves. 
Here was a Swiss chalet, there the home of a millionaire 
in French Renaissance. Nearby was a Moorish palace; 
across the street was a building that seemed to have been 
copied from one in Florence or Venice, while in the next 
block was a structure that might have been transported 
bodily from the heart of Ispahan. And all of them were 
surrounded by spacious yards filled with flowers of every 
hue and adorned by trees of the most delightful aspect. 

But here, as in Rio de Janeiro, the most beautiful flowers 
were stationed at the front windows — or seated in the 
balconies overlooking the street — lovely, prattling children, 
and charming, well-gowned young women — who spend sev- 

89 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

eral hours each day enjoying the fresh air of the morning 
or evening hour, and watching the stream of humanity 
which denies before them — some afoot and some in con- 
veyances of every description. Chirping, twittering, smil- 
ing, laughing, gesticulating, these animated, exquisite, 
happy flowers seem to experience, to the full, the joy of 
living. Among them are all types of delicacy and loveli- 
ness. For Sao Paulo is a very cosmopolitan city and people 
from all parts of the world have made their homes here. 
And the passer-by, in addition to the native Portuguese, 
will hear the musical tongues of the French, Spaniard, 
and Italian, as well as the less mellifluous voices of the 
German and the English. The faces of the Italian and 
Spanish children are especially beautiful and carry one 
back, in fancy, to the sun-lit towns of Calabria or the vine- 
clad hills of Andalusia. As in Spain and Portugal, woman 
in Sao Paulo, and in many parts of Brazil, is not yet a 
plant v for the open air. She is rather a flower of the con- 
servatory whose delicate bloom is best preserved within 
the sacred precincts of the domestic hearth. 

"When I expressed a desire to see some of the educational 
and charitable institutions of Sao Paulo, my escort — a 
prominent literary man — immediately suggested that we 
should visit Sao Bento — the abbey and college of the Bene- 
dictines. ''Sao Bento,' ' said my companion, "is our best 
college and will, we hope, soon become a university. It 
occupies a position of historic interest, for it was originally 
the site of the residence of Tebyreca, the old Indian chief 
who was a great friend of Padre Anchieta and did so much 
to maintain friendly relations between his own people and 
the Portuguese." 

We were in the reception room of Sao Bento only a 
few moments when the abbot appeared and greeted us in 
the most cordial manner and in perfect English. He was 
a jolly, good-natured monk, learned and pious like all the 
sons of St. Benedict. He was of German extraction, and, to 

90 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

my surprise, I learned he had come from Pennsylvania. 
When he introduced the members of his faculty, I was 
delighted to find that one of them was a young Irish- Ameri- 
can priest from Jersey City. All were intensely interested 
in their work and were following the best traditions of 
their venerable predecessors at Monte Cassino. Like their 
brethren in Europe, who had passed on the torch of learn- 
ing from century to century and were everywhere known 
as the " learned Benedictines," so also here in Sao Paulo 
these learned religious enjoy a well-deserved reputation 
as scholars and successful teachers. The church and mon- 
astery of Sao Bento will well repay a visit and one rejoices 
to learn that both are so near to the hearts of all true 
Paulistas. It stands almost on the site of the mud-cov- 
ered wattle college of Padre Anchieta and shows, better 
than anything else, the marvelous advancement made by 
the city since the days of its first educator. 

Among other institutions of learning in Sao Paulo that 
are sure to interest the visitor, are the diocesan seminary, 
the normal school, the college of law, the school of the 
Dames de Sion, the kindergarten and the polytechnic school. 
These are all model structures of their kind, well equipped 
and filled with bright, ambitious students. Besides these 
really excellent homes of learning, there are many other 
school buildings, both public and private, which would be 
an ornament to any city and in which the standard of 
instruction is very high. 

More surprising to most foreigners, because but little 
known outside of Brazil, are the thoroughly up-to-date and 
ably conducted schools of agriculture and zootechny. It 
is usually imagined, by most people, that the Brazilians 
are still wedded to the old colonial system of farming and 
breeding of domestic animals, but this is an error — espe- 
cially in so far as it refers to the state of Sao Paulo. Here 
the people are fully alive to the benefits accruing from 
scientific agriculture and stock raising, and they spare no 

91 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

expense to secure the best results. When necessary, they 
call in distinguished experts from foreign countries as pro- 
fessors and directors of certain branches and departments. 
Thus, in the state institutions of Sao Paulo one will find 
professors not only from France and Belgium but also 
from the United States. 

Among the charitable institutions of Sao Paulo, the 
largest and best equipped is Santa Casa da Misericordia, 
It is both the oldest and the most celebrated hospital of 
Sao Paulo and contains no fewer than twelve hundred beds 
which are always filled with patients of all classes and from 
all parts. The medical staff of the institution is composed 
of the most noted physicians and surgeons of the city, 
some of whom have achieved an international reputation. 
The Santa Casa da Misericordia is under the direction 
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, France. As an 
asylum for the sick and unfortunate, it is not surpassed 
in the excellence and completeness of its appointments, or 
in its architectural beauty, by any similar institution in 
America or Europe. 

I have said that Sao Paulo is a cosmopolitan city. In 
this respect it is not unlike New York or Chicago. For here 
we find immigrants from Spain, Portugal, France, Ger- 
many, Italy, England, Austria and other nations. The state 
of Sao Paulo counts about three million inhabitants, of 
whom nearly one-half are foreigners who have arrived in 
the country during the past twenty years. In 1891, nearly 
three hundred thousand immigrants entered Brazil — more 
than a third of whom were Italians. A large proportion 
of these settled in various parts of the State of Sao Paulo, 
while very many of them made their homes in the state's 
capital. Everywhere in the city one meets Italians, most 
of whom are day laborers. There are, however, many who 
are engaged in business and in the different professions. 
Among them are many who were so poor, when they left 
their own country, that they were unable to pay their 

92 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

passage across the ocean. But now they own comfortable 
homes, while not a few have amassed considerable fortunes, 
and would be recognized in their mother country as worthy 
descendants of the merchant princes of Genoa and Venice. 
Here, as in our own country, they are an industrious, thrifty 
race, and have contributed greatly to the development of 
the boundless resources of the country of their adoption. 
They make not only good citizens, but also loyal Brazilians. 

Some sections of the city of Sao Paulo are occupied 
almost exclusively by Italians. Here, as well as in New 
York City, there is a ''Little Italy," where one may at all 
hours of the day, and most of the night, hear the sweet 
tongue of Tasso and Ariosto. And here, as in Naples and 
Palermo, one always finds the streets full of healthy, play- 
ful, happy children whose melodious voices and peals of 
laughter reveal, as nothing else could, the innate lightheart- 
edness of these sunny natures in the sun. 

As I saw the countless thousands of Italians in Sao 
Paulo, I could not but recall the time, in the early history 
of the Portuguese colonies in South America, when it was 
absolutely forbidden for an Italian to enter Brazil. Now 
— striking irony of fate ! — in many of the towns of the in- 
terior of the state, the majority of the inhabitants are Ital- 
ian immigrants, or people of Italian parentage. And, if 
the tide of Italian immigration continues a few years longer 
to flow into the city of Sao Paulo at the same rate as during 
the last few decades, the day is not far distant when sunny 
Italy will have a larger representation in this rapidly grow- 
ing metropolis than Brazil herself. The climate here closely 
resembles that of the Italian peninsula, while economic 
conditions, for most of the immigrants, are far better than 
those of their motherland. 

One cannot fail to be impressed by the large families 
one meets in the city of Sao Paulo. It is no uncommon 
thing to find them comprising ten or twelve, or even more, 
children. The birth rate is nearly thirty-six per thousand. 

93 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

This is almost twice as great as that of London, and shows 
that race-suicide is not making the terrible ravage here 
that it does in many of the great cities of Europe and 
the United States. More impressive still is the fact that 
the birth rate is more than double the death rate — some- 
thing which can be said of few cities of this size. The mor- 
tality of the city varies between seventeen and twenty 
per thousand. This is lower than that of many European 
capitals and less than half of that of Mexico and Bombay. 
One could not wish for better evidence of the climate's 
salubrity or of the sanitary condition of the city. No- 
where are there more competent health officials than here 
and nowhere are all necessary hygienic measures more rig- 
idly enforced. 

Nothing is more remarkable than the city's extraordi- 
nary increase in population during the last three decades. 
In 1890 it counted barely fifty thousand inhabitants. Now 
it claims nearly half a million. And everything indicates 
that this increase will continue. It is the metropolis of 
the richest and most enterprising state in the republic and 
the great natural resources of the surrounding country are 
sure to guarantee its always being one of the greatest and 
most active business centers of South America. Even now, 
it is surpassed in population only by Rio de Janeiro and 
Buenos Aires. 

As a gauge of the marvelous growth and prosperity of 
the city and of the abiding confidence which the leading 
Paulistas have in its continued development, it suffices to 
state that the value of real estate in and around Sao Paulo 
has increased tenfold within the last few years. It is doubt- 
ful whether any of our large cities in the United States 
have witnessed a more extraordinary appreciation of land 
values in the same period of time. This is partly explained 
by the fact that Sao Paulo is the home not only of its pros- 
perous bankers and merchants but also of many of the 
business men of Santos and of the wealthy fazendeiros of 

94 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

the interior of the state, who love to spend, with their fami- 
lies, a good part of the year in their bright and cheerful 
capital. Both in the city proper and in its charming sub- 
urbs these fazendeiros have large and sumptuous villas 
and palacetes which would vie with the noblest structures 
seen along "Millionaires' Kow" in New York City. 

It is sometimes asserted that the marvelous prosperity 
of the state of Sao Paulo is due primarily to its salubrious 
climate and to its fertile soil. But this is a mistake. There 
are other states which are equally blessed in these two im- 
portant respects. It is to be attributed, rather, to the pe- 
culiar character of its people whose boundless energy, won- 
derful initiative and enterprise and passionate love of lib- 
erty have, from the earliest colonial times, so distinguished 
them, as a class apart, among the other inhabitants of 
Brazil. The history of this vast commonwealth is full of 
their deeds of valor, of their daring adventures, of their 
achievements as explorers and as Conquistador es da Terra. 

On the Paulistas seemed to fall the mantles of the great 
Spanish discoverers and conquistadores whose prodigious 
activity and enterprise had almost expired in the wonderful 
performances of Irala, Ayolas and Nuflo de Chaves. Like 
those of many of the Spaniards, the activities of the early 
Paulistas or Mamelucos, as they were called, were stimu- 
lated by the lust of gold. And to secure this precious metal, 
they stopped before no difficulty, quailed before no danger, 
however great. Equipped with their trusty sword and 
musket and with a sack of farinha de guerra — extracted 
from mandioca or a certain species of palm — they were 
ready to start on a journey of a month's or a year's dura- 
tion. If their war meal gave out, they, like Cabeza de Vaca 
before them, subsisted on pine nuts and the fruits of the 
country they traversed. If these failed them, they relied 
for sustenance on fish and game. 

In quest of gold, they traversed the vast territory now 
comprised within the states of Goyaz, Minas Geraes, 

95 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Piauhi, and far-off Matto Grosso. They explored the To- 
cantins, the Xingu, the Guapore, the Mamore, and the Ma- 
deira. And yet more. Under the leadership of the intrepid 
Antonio Eaposo, a large party of these gold-seekers, incred- 
ible as it may seem, made their way as far as the province 
of Quito, and, after a series of actions with the Spaniards, 
returned to Curupa, near the mouth of the Amazon, only 
a few years after Texeira's epoch-making voyage that has 
been so graphically described by Padre de Acuna. Only 
those who have traveled in the wilds of South America 
and know how great are the difficulties attending transport 
and subsistence in a country inhabited by hostile savages 
can form an adequate conception of the wonderful feat ac- 
complished by Eaposo and his dauntless companions. Their 
expedition, which took them twice across a trackless con- 
tinent, during which they had to face countless dangers 
and privations, was incomparably more difficult and ven- 
turesome than that of Lewis and Clark from St. Louis 
to the mouth of the Columbia. Indeed, there is nothing 
in the history of South American exploration to surpass 
it except such daring adventures as those of Gonsalo Xime- 
nes de Quesada or Philip von Hutten, in the quest of El 
Dorado. 1 Had there only been among these intrepid ex- 
plorers men to record their adventures, as there were 
among the Spanish Conquistadores, as there were among 
those who went in quest of El Dorado, as there were even 
among the Buccaneers of the Spanish Main, we should 
now have accounts of achievements that would match those 
of Padre Carbajal, the historian of Orellana's discovery of 
the Amazon, or of Padre Medrano, the recorder of the 
wonderful expedition of Gonsalo Ximenes de Quesada in 

1 For a graphic account of these famous expeditions, the reader is referred 
to the ' ' Historia del Nuevo Eeino de Granada, ' ' by the poet priest, Juan de 
Castellanos, Madrid, 1886, and to the ' ' Noticias Historiales de las Conquistas 
de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales, ' ' by the old Franciscan chronicler, 
Fray Pedro Simon, Bogota, 1882. Their pages have all the fascination of a 
romance. 

96 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

search of the ever fleeting Dorado. We should have am- 
ple accounts of regions in the great selva of Brazil that 
are still terra incognita. We should be informed about re- 
gions and Indian tribes that were almost unknown until 
recently visited by daring explorers from Germany. And 
— who knows? — there might have been a graphic descrip- 
tion of a voyage down what is now known as the Rio Teo- 
doro, written three centuries before the Roosevelt Expe- 
dition put it on the map. 

But the Mamelucos were not only gold-seekers and ex- 
plorers. They were, also, sad to relate, slave dealers. 
With them gold hunting and slave hunting went hand in 
hand. For this reason the Mameluco bandeirantes would 
naturally not desire to have such historiographers with 
them as were the Dominican Carbajal, the Franciscan Me- 
drano, or the Jesuit Acuna, because the members of these 
religious orders were the protectors of the Indians, and 
their stanch defenders against their Mameluke captors and 
oppressors. They would not care even to have one of 
their own number chronicle their atrocious acts of inhu- 
manity, as Exquemeling had done for the Buccaneers. 

For ourselves it is probably as well that we are spared 
a recital of the horrors that attended these ruthless slave- 
hunting expeditions. We know too much about them, as 
it is. We know that they were signalized by greater acts 
of cruelty and barbarity towards the helpless Indians than 
any recorded in the annals of Portuguese colonization and 
conquest. There are many dark pages in the history of 
South America, but the darkest of them are those that 
deal with the marauding Mamelukes and their attacks on 
the hapless Indians of the sertao, and tell of their fiendish 
raids on the happy, confiding Indians of the missions and 
reductions. We are grateful that we have not these unwrit- 
ten chapters of horrors and that the native traditions of 
those days of crime and carnage are gradually passing 
into oblivion. 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

The fact that the Paulistas were a mestizo race explains 
their love of adventure, as it, likewise, explains their fierce- 
ness and cruelty during the period to which I now refer. 
It was the call of the blood. The Indian in them impelled 
them to roam over plain and through forest and across 
lofty mountain ranges, to attack and enslave inoffensive 
tribes as their savage ancestors had done from time imme- 
morial. The Portuguese part of their nature was domi- 
nated by the greed of gold. Love of adventure and love 
of gold combined with the strong, daring character of the 
Indian and the keen, alert character of the Portuguese 
produced what we know as the Paulistas in history — a 
strenuous, energetic, fearless, progressive race — a race 
which combines all the physical prepotency of the Indian, 
developed through long years of struggle with neighbor- 
ing tribes, and all the mental prepotency of the Portuguese 
who had given to the world a Camoens, a Vasco da Gama, 
a Magellan, a Henry the Navigator. In their case, as in 
the case of the commingling of the blood of the Spaniard 
with the Aztec, or the Quichua, or the Araucanian, the 
union of the Indian and the European produced a type of 
men who were capable of achieving great things and of 
being leaders among their fellows in every sphere of hu- 
man activity. 

This same fact— the union of two strong and energetic 
races — explains their preeminence in commerce, industry, 
statecraft. As conditions changed and the country be- 
came more thickly populated, the energy that had been 
previously expended in gold-hunting and slave-hunting was 
directed into other channels, and they soon became as con- 
spicuous in the arts of civilized life as they had for- 
merly been as ruthless marauders and dare-devil adven- 
turers. 

Far from desiring to conceal his Indian strain, the Paul- 
ista is proud of it — as proud as the Virginian who can 
claim relationship with Pocahontas, or as the Peruvian 

98 



AMONG THE PROGKESSIVE PAULISTAS 

who can point to an ancestor who belonged to the royal fam- 
ily of the Incas. 

Everywhere in Sao Paulo — in the interior of the state 
as well as in the capital — one finds indisputable evidence 
of the energy, the enterprise, the clearness of vision of 
the Paulistas. But probably these characteristics are in 
nothing more strikingly evinced than in the manner in 
which they have made themselves the great coffee pro- 
ducers of the world. The celebrated terra roxa — red earth 
— in which the coffee tree grows so luxuriantly, is found 
in many other parts of Brazil from Ceara, to Matto Grosso, 
but the Paulistas were the first to demonstrate its wonder- 
ful adaptability for coffee-culture and to make coffee plan- 
tations their most important asset. 

The history of what Linnaeus named Coffea Arabica, 
in its long migrations from the wild forests of Abyssinia 
and Mozambique to the carefully cultivated f azendas of Sao 
Paulo, is a most interesting one and reads more like 
fiction than sober history. It is a far cry from its first re- 
stricted use as a drug in the East to its present status as 
one of the world's most popular beverages; from the time 
when its production in the West was prohibited, and gave 
rise to as absurd conflicts as attended the introduction 
of tobacco into Europe, to the day when its culture consti- 
tutes the chief industry and the greatest source of revenue 
of a great nation. 

It is scarcely eighty years since the production of coffee 
in the state of Sao Paulo received its first impetus. Before 
that time it was rarely found outside of a drug store. But 
after that, the development of the industry was so rapid 
and so extraordinary in its proportions that it stands forth 
as one of the marvels of economic history. In 1851, the 
amount of coffee exported from Sao Paulo was something 
more than a hundred thousand sacks of one hundred and 
thirty-two pounds each. Thenceforth, the export of this 
staple increased with amazing rapidity until, in 1896-97, the 

99 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

amount produced reached the stupendous figure of more 
than fifteen million sacks. This, with what was collected 
in other parts of the republic, gave Brazil eighty-five per 
cent of the world's total production of this valuable com- 
modity. That year the state of Sao Paulo produced fully 
three times as much coffee as all the other states of Brazil 
combined. 

But this enormous crop was more than the market could 
bear. The supply had gone beyond the demand. The 
price of coffee fell until it threatened coffee-growers and 
the state itself with financial disaster. But the shrewd 
Paulistas were equal to the emergency. For it was then, 
in order to support the market and to protect the coffee 
industry, in which countless millions were invested, that 
they had recourse to that much criticised measure known 
as coffee valorization. The operation seemed like a 
gambler's risk, but there was so much at stake, and this 
seemed the only method of securing relief, that the gov- 
ernment of Sao Paulo did not hesitate to act. This meas- 
ure, which achieved the end in view, was only another illus- 
tration of that quick initiative and sturdiness of character 
which has always so distinguished the Paulistas from the 
rest of their countrymen and which has tided them over 
difficulties which would have overwhelmed men of less de- 
termination and self-confidence. 1 

1 The reader will be interested to learn that the Coffee King of Brazil is 
a German immigrant, named Francisco Schmidt. The annual coffee crop raised 
on his extensive fazendas is from two hundred to two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand sacks. He reminds one, in many ways, of his distinguished compatriot, 
the late Claus Spreckels, who was known as the Sugar King of the Hawaiian 
Islands. Like Mr. Spreckels, Mr. Schmidt is a self-made man, and like him 
he is the possessor of exceptional business acumen and initiative. 

Claus Spreckels, I may here be permitted to add, once told me in Honolulu, 
that on his arrival in San Francisco he had but sixty-nine cents in his pocket — 
all that he possessed. At the time of his death, he ranked among the most 
prominent multi-millionaires of the United States. He told me, also, how 
Bismarck had urged him to use his great influence to have the Hawaiian Islands 
become a German possession. ' ' But I said, No ! ' ' the sturdy Sugar King de- 
clared in his characteristic manner. ' ' I love the Fatherland, but my first duty 

100 



AMONG THE PROGRESSIVE PAULISTAS 

The Paulistas exhibited, as we have seen, exceptional 
business acumen in their marvelous development of the 
coffee culture, but, when they had discovered that the sup- 
ply of coffee was exceeding the demand, they showed the 
same quick decision, the same practical sense, by directing 
their surplus energy into other business channels. They 
began to cultivate rice, cotton, tobacco, and plant such 
rubber-producing trees as manicoba and mangabeira. They 
established new industries and devoted more attention to 
manufacture. They opened up new centers of colonization 
in every part of the state and connected them by railroads 
with the great markets of the republic. 

But probably in nothing have their capacity and re- 
sourcefulness been more clearly demonstrated than in their 
wonderful transformation of Santos, the famous port of 
Sao Paulo. For more than a half-century, it was the 
most dreaded pesthole in South America, if not in the 
world. Yellow fever and other tropical diseases were en- 
demic, and its annual death toll was frightful. It seemed 
impossible to do anything that would stem the awful rav- 
ages of the plague. But the Paulistas succeeded here as 
their compatriots succeeded in Rio de Janeiro. Yellow 
fever in Santos is something of the past and the best indi- 
cation of the city's progress and of the salubrity of its cli- 
mate, is its wonderful docks, rivaling those of Rio de Ja- 
neiro, and the fact that the Ritz-Carlton people have es- 
tablished here, as in Sao Paulo, one of their world-famous 
hotels. 

Like most of their countrymen, the Paulistas are more 
or less chauvinists, but they do not permit their patriotic 
ardor to blind them to the merits of people of other na- 
tionalities. This is evinced by their placing foreign spe- 
cialists at the head of their scientific and technical insti- 

is to the country of my adoption. If Hawaii ever loses its independence, it 
must belong to the United States." A few years subsequent his prediction 
was verified. 

101 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tutions, and by employing foreign professors for their 
higher institutions of learning. This policy is quite differ- 
ent from that of Rio de Janeiro, where politics and public 
opinion and a little vanity, too, are quite averse to the ap- 
pointment of foreigners to positions of trust and emolu- 
ment, save in very exceptional cases. But it is just this 
ability and willingness to suppress all feelings of self-love, 
when the general good requires it, that is another indica- 
tion of the strong character and hard common sense of 
the Paulistas in public, as well as in private life. And 
it is this accepted policy of securing the cooperation of ex- 
perts, irrespective of nationality, that has contributed so 
materially to the development of agriculture and industry 
in Sao Paulo, that explains its wonderful progress and 
prosperity and that has, in no small measure, given to the 
whole of Brazil the prestige and the prominence she now 
enjoys in the great family of civilized nations. 



CHAPTER VI 
IN SEMI-TEOPICAL BRAZIL 

When Colonel Roosevelt and I decided to go together 
to South America we agreed that we should, as far as pos- 
sible, shun the beaten track usually followed by tourists 
and commercial travelers. We were both familiar with the 
large cities of the Old and the New World, and did not, 
therefore, desire to spend much time in the capitals and 
mercantile centers of the Southern Continent where social 
and business conditions are essentially the same as they are 
in Europe and in the United States. We wished to see 
something new — something we could not see in our own 
land. We wished, specially, to visit sections of the country 
which were just being opened to settlement and which were, 
for the first time, being connected by rail with the great 
marts of commerce. We wished, in a word, to study, as 
far as might be, the pioneer life of the various countries 
which we contemplated traversing. 

We had already decided on our route through the in- 
terior of the continent, after we should once have reached 
the Upper Paraguay. But an almost equally important 
matter was to decide what should be our line of travel 
before definitely entering the great wilderness of Brazil. 

I suggested making out an itinerary before leaving 
New York. "Bully," said Colonel Roosevelt. "You make 
out an itinerary and we shall afterward look it over to- 
gether. ' ' 

I accordingly made out a plan of a tour which I con- 
ceived would meet the ends we both had in view. Colonel 
Roosevelt was delighted with it. "This is admirable!" he 

103 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

exclaimed. "I do not think we can improve on it. Un- 
less something unforeseen occurs, we shall follow this itin- 
erary to the letter." 

And we did follow it to the letter, with one slight ex- 
ception — an exception we were obliged to make through 
lack of time. And so satisfactory was it, in every way, to 
both of us that neither of us at any time would have wished 
it to have been different. It enabled us to secure precisely 
the information we were in quest of and, at the same time, 
it afforded us an opportunity of seeing some of the most 
magnificent exhibitions of scenic beauty and grandeur to 
be found in South America. 

The usual route from Rio de Janeiro to Montevideo is 
by sea. We elected to go overland by rail, as we were eager 
to get a view of the splendid grazing and agricultural lands 
between Sao Paulo and Uruguay. For years before our 
visit, certain sections of the railroad between these two 
points had been in operation, but the line as a whole — 
now known as the Brazil Railroad — was not opened for 
traffic until the latter part of 1910. Even then it was far 
from complete, for trains were running over temporary 
bridges and roadbeds that were far from safe. Regular 
through passenger traffic was not seriously inaugurated un- 
til a few months before our arrival in Brazil. Indeed, so 
recent had been the formal opening of the line, and so little 
was known about it, that when I told certain Brazilian 
officials and business men in New York of our intention 
of going from Rio de Janeiro to Montevideo by rail, they 
told me at once it could not be done. "The road is not 
yet open," they said, "and we have no idea when it will 
be." Truth to tell, only two special trains had passed 
over this long stretch of road before we started on our 
long journey from the capital of Brazil to the capital of 
Uruguay. 

Even in Rio de Janeiro so little was known about the 
condition of the road, or of the country it traverses, that 

104 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

we were strongly urged by our friends against making the 
journey by rail, because of the dust and intense heat which, 
they said, we were sure to encounter. Naturally, not hav- 
ing traveled over the road, they could not be expected to 
know much about it. And, then, when one bears in mind 
that the distance by rail from Rio de Janeiro to Monte- 
video is as far as it is from Portland, Maine, to San An- 
tonio, Texas, we can readily understand why but very 
few people should have had accurate information regard- 
ing the country through which the road passes. As a mat- 
ter of fact, the great mass of the people of Rio de Janeiro 
knew little more about the country and climate of Southern 
Brazil at the time of our visit than they then knew of the 
now famous River of Doubt. But this was not necessarily 
an evidence of the ignorance of the Fluminenses respecting 
their country, but rather an indication of the immense ex- 
tent of territory comprised within the borders of Brazil. 

Thanks to the courtesy of Mr. Farquhar, President of 
the Brazil Railway, a special train was placed at our dis- 
posal, and we were able to make the long journey to Monte- 
video with every convenience and comfort. It enabled us 
to stop wherever we wished and as long as we wished. Be- 
sides this we were accompanied by Mr. Hugh Taylor, the 
general manager of the road, and a number of other promi- 
nent officials who left nothing undone to make the journey 
as pleasant and profitable for us as possible. 

The main line of the Brazilian Railway running south 
of Sao Paulo passes over the elevated plateau which is 
bounded by a mountain range on the east and by the great 
waterways of the Parana and the Uruguay on the west. 
The altitude of this extensive table-land is from six hun- 
dred to four thousand feet above sea level. Owing to its 
elevation and to its being south of the tropic of Capricorn, 
this part of Brazil — consisting of the states of Parana, 
Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul — has the most de- 
lightful climate in the entire republic. It is well watered 

105 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

by numerous rivers and streams, and the soil is well 
adapted to both grazing and agriculture. The road al- 
ternately passes through prairie lands, — campos — on which 
there are large flocks and herds — and extensive forests 
which are destined, in supplying the world with timber, to 
replace, in a measure, the rapidly disappearing woodlands 
of Europe and North America. Already there are many 
large sawmills along the railroad, and the amount of build- 
ing material shipped from them is daily increasing. Cedar, 
pine and various hard woods abound, but the tree that is 
most conspicuous, and always attracts the special attention 
of the tourist, is a species of pine called by botanists 
Araucaria Brasiliensis. Its trunk is from seventy-five to 
one hundred feet high and is surmounted by branches at 
right angles to it. Seen from a distance, it resembles an 
open Chinese umbrella, and gives to the landscape a cachet 
that is as original as it is distinctive. I never saw one of 
these peculiar representatives of the subtropical forest 
without recalling Hugh Miller's eloquent periods regarding 
their superb congeners of the paleontologic past. 

The climate of the plateau in Parana, Santa Catharina 
and Rio Grande do Sul is, for the most part, subtropical. 
As in the tropics, the foliage of the trees is always green, 
and fruits and flowers abound throughout the year. It 
produces all the cereals and fruits of temperate zones and 
many of those of the tropics as well. Here one will find 
maize, wheat, rye, potatoes, and nearly all the vegetables 
grown in our own northern gardens. In the lowlands along 
the coast, rice, coffee, bananas, oranges, pineapples and 
similar products specially thrive. Grapes are cultivated in 
many places and a good quality of native wine is being 
gradually introduced, especially by the German and Italian 
colonists. In the plateau the climate is not unlike that of 
our cotton states, but the average annual temperature is 
higher. During the winter months, the thermometer often 
falls below freezing-point at night, but, during the daytime, 

106 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

the climate is unusually mild and pleasant. A striking proof 
of the uniform mildness of the climate is the prevalence, 
throughout the plateau, of beautiful tree-ferns from ten to 
fifteen feet high. Their exquisite frondage was always a 
source of delight to all of us, and, along the rivers near 
which the train passed, they exhibited the most wonderful 
delicacy and luxuriance. I shall never forget the many 
charming pictures that we saw of lovely little waterfalls 
surrounded by a group of the most perfectly formed tree- 
ferns, large and small. The picture of the musical, multi- 
colored cascade was of itself a thing of beauty, but, when 
seen with its marvelous setting of rich, lace-like fronds, 
it was something unique and beauteous beyond compare — 
just such a retreat as an old Greek would have selected for 
Diana and her nymphs after the labors of the chase. 

We were all much interested in the new colonies which 
were springing up everywhere along the line. Before the 
advent of the railroad, the number of inhabitants was very 
small and very scattered. They raised barely enough for 
their own use, for, owing to the lack of communications, 
it was almost impossible to get their produce to the mar- 
kets. Even if they were able to do so, the expense at- 
tending it was so great that they had nothing in the end 
to show for their time and labor. Now, however, condi- 
tions have entirely changed. For, thanks to the encourage- 
ment given to colonists by the railway company, as well as 
by the government, in securing homesteads, the population 
has greatly increased within the last few years. 

Most of the immigrants are from Germany, Italy, Po- 
land, Russia, Spain and Portugal. There are also repre- 
sentatives from France, Switzerland and Asia Minor. Dur- 
ing a period of seven years, the number of immigrants, 
from these countries, who sought homes in the state of 
Parana was no less than fifty-one thousand, most of whom 
were Poles. In the state of Santa Catharina, European 
immigrants and their descendants constitute more than a 

107 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

third of the entire population. African half-breeds are in 
a very small minority, amounting to not more than ten per 
cent, at most. 

In Curityba, the capital of Parana, the greater number 
of the business houses belongs to Germans, or to their de- 
scendants. The flourishing city of Blumenau, in Santa 
Catharina, was founded by a German, Dr. Hermann Blu- 
menau, and the great majority of its population is Ger- 
man born, or of German descent. The aspect of the city is 
German and the municipality has, since its foundation, 
been dominated by Germans. In many parts of the three 
states of which I am now speaking, the language of the 
schools is German, and, in some instances, Brazilian em- 
ployees in German houses must learn German in order to 
retain their position. 

This cosmopolitan character of the inhabitants of 
Parana, Santa Catharina and Bio Grande do Sul indi- 
cates most clearly what is to be the ethnic character of 
the Brazilian of the future in the southern part of the 
republic. He will belong wholly to the Caucasian race, 
will have regular features, a white complexion, light rather 
than dark hair, and will exhibit a composite German and 
Polish, rather than a Latin type. 

Slavery never was so developed here as in the northern 
part of Brazil, and hence the little Negro blood that at 
one time flowed through the veins of some of the inhabitants 
may now be regarded as quite a negligible quantity. The 
same may be said of the Indian strain that once existed 
in some of the European population of this part of the re- 
public. It has all but disappeared. Southern Brazil, then, 
unlike much of the northern section, where the blacks are 
so numerous, is a white man's country — as much so as any 
part of Europe or the United States — and is likely to re- 
main so indefinitely. 

In marked contrast with the State of Sao Paulo, with 
its aristocratic f azendeiros whose large estates insure them 

108 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

princely revenues, Parana, Santa Catharina and Eio 
Grande do Sul constitute a commonwealth of small landed 
proprietors. Here, where manufacturers are still in an 
inchoate condition, most of the available capital is in the 
soil itself, and this is the possession of those whose labor 
makes it productive. 

We visited the homes of many of the immigrants — 
Germans, Poles, Italians and others — in the various colo- 
nies at which we stopped and found them to be, as a rule, 
quite as comfortable and commodious as were the homes 
of our western pioneers a few generations ago. "What 
particularly impressed us was the air of cleanliness in and 
about the homes of the Germans and Poles. Kitchens, 
bedrooms, living-rooms, all evidenced the scrupulous care 
of the German hausfrau. And the children were as well 
looked after as the house. They were well clad, healthy, 
and seemed as happy as the day was long. It was always 
a genuine pleasure to watch the little, fair-haired Poles, 
the bright, dark-eyed Italians, and the chubby rosy-cheeked 
Germans playing about the house and assisting their par- 
ents in such work as their tiny hands were able to do. They 
all had in them the making of good citizens, such as their 
fathers are today, and will, no doubt, when grown up, do 
their full share towards developing the wonderful resources 
of this favored part of Brazil. 

The railway officials who accompanied us told us that 
the immigrants, with very few exceptions, were doing well 
and were quite contented in the country of their adoption. 
As in the case of all pioneers, their labor is severe in the 
beginning, and their hardships are trying and frequent. 
But they are prepared for this and meet them with a cour- 
age and a determination that know not failure. All told, 
their lot is, in most instances, much happier than it was in 
the overpopulated lands which they left in Europe, and 
their prospects are much brighter. The houses and fields 
of the latest arrivals reminded me very much of those I 

109 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

saw in Ohio and Indiana half a century ago, while the 
homes of those who have had time to show the results of 
their labor and thriftiness recall the neat and snug* cot- 
tages of the Black Forest or Upper Franconia. 

All of our party was greatly interested in the immense 
ranch of the Brazil Land, Cattle and Packing Company 
at Morungava. It is under the management of Mr. Murdo 
Mackenzie, a well-known cattle man from the United States, 
who is ably assisted in this work by a large staff of ex- 
perienced ranchmen from Texas and Colorado. Although 
this enterprise is still in its infancy, it is already begin- 
ning to show splendid results. Everything is conducted 
on scientific principles, and our best western methods of 
grazing and breeding are put in practice. 

One of the first moves of the company was to import 
from the United States nine hundred head of Hereford 
and Shorthorn cattle. These are crossed with the native 
stock and already the herds are showing a marked improve- 
ment in character. In a few years, it is confidently hoped, 
the cattle of this ranch will be of as fine a quality as the 
best of those in Texas and Montana. 

Horses, mules, sheep, goats and hogs thrive equally 
well here. And crossing the best imported varieties with 
native stock has already led to a remarkable development 
in the breed of these various animals. It not only has 
greatly increased their market value, but also has con- 
tributed materially to popularize scientific stock-raising 
among the natives. For, where the cattle growers, as in 
Eio Grande do Sul, for instance, were formerly quite satis- 
fied with the unimproved and half -wild stock that roamed 
the plains, they have now learned the advantage of breed- 
ing upward, as is being so successfully done in the ranch 
at Morungava. Their ambition to become the possessors 
of blooded stock has also been stimulated in a way that 
did not seem possible a few years ago. Then the cattle- 
men of Eio Grande do Sul were contented to follow in the 

110 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

footsteps of their fathers, and were satisfied if they could 
gain a passable livelihood. "Why," they were wont to say, 
"should we bother with blooded stock, which would neces- 
sitate extra care and labor, when we can obtain all the 
money we need with the kind of animals we now have 1 ?" 

Fortunately for the country, these ignorant and routine 
herdsmen of the old school are rapidly disappearing be- 
fore younger and more progressive stock-breeders who are 
everywhere striving to benefit by the teachings of Ameri- 
can and Argentine cattlemen and to emulate their exam- 
ple. They have learned that an animal of improved breed 
weighs twice as much as one of the old degenerate type, 
and that there is a greater demand for it in both the lo- 
cal and foreign markets. For this reason one now sees, on 
many of the ranches in Southern Brazil, splendid speci- 
mens of Durhams, Herefords, and other similar prized 
breeds; and, judging from present indications, the day is 
not far distant when the cattle of Rio Grande do Sul will 
become as important a commodity as those of Argentina 
and Uruguay. 

One of the most valuable products of Parana, Santa 
Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, and, at the same time, 
one of their most precious items of export, is something 
which has, until very recently, been practically unknown 
outside of South America. This is mate or Paraguayan 
tea. The word mate signifies not only the beverage itself, 
but, strangely enough, it also designates the leaves from 
which it is prepared, the tree from which they are taken 
and the gourd or calabash in which the infusion is pre- 
pared. 

The mate tree is a species of holly, and is known among 
botanists as Ilex Paraguayensis. The tree is ordinarily 
from fifteen to thirty feet high and has glossy, green leaves 
like those of the orange. Its habitat embraces the states 
of Parana, Santa Catharina, Rio Grande do Sul, and parts 
of Argentina and Paraguay. As a source of revenue it is 

111 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

for Parana what coffee is to Sao Paulo, and what rubber 
is to Para and Amazonas. But, although it is the fa- 
vorite beverage of fifteen million people in South Amer- 
ica, it was, until a few years ago, rarely seen in Eu- 
rope and the United States, outside of an occasional phar- 
macy. 

Like the coca among the Bolivians and Peruvians, mate 
was among the Guarani Indians the plant par excellence. 
Their name for it was caa — plant — the plant that was 
unique among all other plants. The Spanish and Portu- 
guese, even to this day, show the value they have long at- 
tached to it by their name for it. It is simply yerha or 
herva — the herb. When these words are used in Spanish 
or Portuguese, everyone knows what herb — we should say 
tree — is meant. For them there is only one yerha — the 
one that produces what they regard as the most delicious 
of beverages. 1 

And, as in the case of coca, it was the Indians who made 
known the valuable properties of mate to the Spaniards. 
The fact that the indigenous tribes should have discovered 
the methods of preparing and preserving such important 
products as coca, mate and manioc — which have been for 
them, for uncounted ages, the staff of life — is proof posi- 
tive that they possessed a higher degree of intelligence 
than has usually been attributed to them. 

But the time arrived, alas ! when mate became for the 
poor natives an occasion of untold suffering. As the Span- 
iards and Portuguese came to know the virtues of the 
plant, the demand for mate became so great, especially in 
•Paraguay, that thousands of encomienda Indians were 
pressed into service to collect and prepare an adequate sup- 
ply. And, while the actual labor incident to the collection 
of the precious commodity was not so severe, the condi- 
tions under which they had to work were at times almost 

1 It is also called by the Portuguese herva mate and by the Spaniards 
yerba mate. 

112 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

as fatal as were those connected with the mines and pearl- 
fisheries in other parts of the continent. 

Mate is said to have been introduced into London nearly 
two hundred years ago, where it at once became so popular 
that the tea merchants, fearing injury to their trade, re- 
solved to have its sale discontinued. They, accordingly, 
hired a physician to declare it to be injurious to health 
and physical beauty. 1 They then saw to it that this report 
received all the publicity possible, and the result was that 
mate was thenceforth tabooed throughout England. 2 

The mate tree is usually associated with the Araucarian 
pine. Hence it is that the largest hervces — groups of mate 
trees — are found in the extensive forests of the Araucaria 
Brasiliensis. It is in these forests, then, that the mate 
of commerce is collected and, to a great extent, prepared 
for the market. 

The collection of mate is in the hands of men who are 
known in Brazil as hervateiros, who make a specialty of 

1 The historian Dobrizhoffer, referring to this matter, has a sly fling at the 
solicitude of the English for health and beauty in the following words: His- 
toriisne an fabulis adnumerandum id omne sit, ignoro. Illud eertum, ab His- 
pannis me id aeeepisse, mihique verisimillimum videri, perpensa Anglorum, 
quam de forma fertilitateque suarum habent, religiosa solicitudine. "Historia 
de Abiponibus, ' ' Tom. I, p. 121, Vienna, 1784. 

2 "Many things," wrote Padre Nicholas Techo about this time, "are 
reported concerning the virtue of this powder or herb; for, they say, if you 
cannot sleep, it will compose you to it; if you are lethargic, it drives away 
sleep; if you are hungry, it satisfies; if your meat does not digest, it causes 
an appetite; it refreshes after weariness, and drives away melancholy, and 
several diseases. Those who once use themselves to it, cannot easily leave it, 
for they affirm their strength fails 'em when they want it, and can 't live long ; 
and so great slaves are they to this slender diet, that they'll almost sell them- 
selves rather than want wherewithal to purchase it. The wiser sort, tho ' mod- 
erately used it strengthens and brings other advantages, will hardly ever make 
use of it; and if immoderately used, it causes drunkenness, and breeds dis- 
tempers, as too much wine does; yet this vice has not only overrun Paragon}', 
but Tucuman, Chile and Peru, and is near coming over to Europe, this herb of 
Paraguay being valued among the precious commodities of America." 
"Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels," Vol. IV, p. 648, London, 
1732. 

113 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

this business. The work is simple enough, but it often en- 
tails great exposure in the forests and, not infrequently, 
great hardships. 

About the beginning of May the hervateiros start for 
the hervces. It is then that the mate leaves mature and pos- 
sess, in the highest degree, those qualities which render 
them so valuable. Provided with a supply of rice, salt, 
black beans and dried beef, they bury themselves in the 
forests — which are often a long distance from their homes 
— for months at a time. Fish and game will, occasionally, 
give some variety to their food supply. Their usual shel- 
ter is a simple piece of canvas thrown over the branch 
of a tree. Against the terrific plague of insects which infest 
most of the forests they have no protection whatever. It is 
these pests which are the cause of untold suffering day 
and night. No European could be induced, at any price, to 
encounter the hardships that the native hervateiros face so 
willingly. For they will cut their way through almost im- 
penetrable jungles in a tropical downpour and through 
clouds of noxious insects of all kinds without a murmur. 
Indeed, the work of collecting mate has a certain fascina- 
tion for them, in spite of their meager fare and the poor 
wages which they receive. 

Arrived at the hervces the hervateiros climb up the mate 
trees, and, with their machetes, cut off all the small 
branches, leaving standing only the bare trunks and a few 
large, leafless limbs. These remain untouched for three 
years, when they are again dense with foliage and ready 
for another pruning. The leaves of the lopped-off branches 
are next carefully dried over a fire, when they are pulver- 
ized in a kind of mortar. The powdered mate is then 
packed in leather sacks, and sent, on the backs of mules 
or otherwise, to the market, which is generally many 
leagues distant. Frequently, however, the leaves are sent 
to special mate mills — engenhos — where they are pulver- 
ized and prepared for shipment by being packed in barrels 

114 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

or boxes. There are no less than thirty mate mills in 
Parana, and fully one-half of them are in the capital, 
Curityba. And not only is the greatest amount of the 
prepared product shipped from this point, but also the 
best quality. 

Until recently all the mate of commerce was composed 
of the pulverized leaf. Now, however, the extract is obtain- 
able mixed with sugar. Thus prepared, it is ready for 
use at a moment's notice. It dissolves easily and a tea- 
spoonful of it in either hot or cold water gives instantly an 
ideal beverage. This was the kind we carried with us into 
the Brazilian jungle. Personally, I always drank it in 
preference to tea or coffee, and found it both more refresh- 
ing and stimulating. But I could never prevail on Colonel 
Roosevelt to use it. "I shall never take it," he declared, 
"so long as I can get tea or coffee or water." 

This kind of mate is put up in small tin cans, and I am 
greatly surprised that it has not yet been introduced into 
the United States. I am convinced it would, as soon as 
known, become immensely popular. It is always ready for 
use and easily served. Besides this it has all the virtues 
of tea and coffee and none of their deleterious qualities. 
For persons of weak and delicate constitutions it is the 
most invigorating beverage imaginable and leaves no dis- 
agreeable after-effects. For use in hospitals it is invalu- 
able. As a temperance drink it is nonpareil. It has pre- 
served a large part of South America from the debasing 
evils of alcoholism, and I can conceive of no more powerful 
aid to the cause of temperance in our country than the 
popularizing of a beverage that has proved so efficacious 
among millions of people in our sister continent. 

Chemists and physicians who have made a special study 
of the effects of mate on the human system are all loud in 
its praise. They recommend it both as a tonic and as a 
stimulant, and declare that it is destined to become a 
favorite prescription in hospitals for the sick and the con- 

115 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

valescent. It is less of an excitant than tea or coffee. Un- 
like these two beverages, it does not cause insomnia, neither 
does it, like coffee, induce perturbations of the heart. It 
is the best substitute known for alcoholic drinks of all kinds 
and is particularly recommended to those suffering from 
debility or neurasthenia. 

But more conclusive as to its virtues than the experi- 
ments of physicians and chemists are the results that have 
attended its use for more than three centuries in South 
America. Where mate is used drunkenness is practically 
unknown. Among people like the Gauchos of Brazil and 
the Rio de la Plata region, where beef is the chief article of 
food, mate takes, to a great extent, the place of bread and 
vegetables. Give an Indian or a caboclo — the native Brazil- 
ian squatter — a handful of mate and he will row or work 
all day without food. It seems to dispel hunger and in- 
vigorate the body as effectually as coca. The best evidence 
of its value as a tonic and as a substitute for solid food 
was furnished during the terrible war between Brazil and 
Paraguay nearly half a century ago. Then, writes the 
Brazilian general, Francisco da Rocha Callado, "I was wit- 
ness during a period of twenty-two days, to the fact that 
our army was almost exclusively nourished" — presqu' ex- 
clusivement alimente — "by the mate which we collected in 
the hervces, the lack of provisions on that occasion not per- 
mitting long halts. ' ' 1 

Although Brazilian mate is used from Patagonia to 
Venezuela, the greater part of the product is exported to 
Uruguay and Argentina. To these two republics thousands 
of tons are shipped every year. Until very recently the 
amount imported by the United States was only nominal. 
In the year 1906 it aggregated only three hundred and thirty 
pounds. During this same year Uruguay, but little larger 
than the state of Missouri, consumed twenty-eight million 
pounds, while Argentina called for nearly a hundred mil- 

1 ' ' Etude sur le Mate, " p. 25 by Maurice Francf ort, Curityba, 1908. 

116 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

lion. 1 This enormous consumption of mate in the last two 
countries named shows what an important economic factor 
this commodity is, and is, at the same time, the best possible 
indication of its popularity as a beverage. 

Although the demand for mate, especially in South 
America, is constantly increasing, so extensive are the 
hervcBs in the great forests of Southern Brazil — especially 
Parana, which now supplies four-fifths of this valuable 
product — that the supply is practically inexhaustible. 
When its virtues as a tonic and a stimulant shall become 
better known in our own country, there can be no doubt 
that it will become as popular among our people as it is 
in the southern continent. And being much less ex- 
pensive than tea or coffee, it should eventually become 
the favorite beverage of the poor in the United States, 
as it always has been in. the republics south of the equa- 
tor. 

The southernmost state of Brazil is Eio Grande do Sul. 
It disputes with Minas Geraes the second place, after Sao 
Paulo, as the most prosperous and progressive state of the 
republic. Its inhabitants call their state terra gaucha — the 
land of the Gauchos. The name is appropriate, for the 
manners, customs and character of its people are identical 
with those of the celebrated Gauchos of Uruguay and Ar- 
gentina. Like the Gauchos, they live in the saddle, and are 
never so happy as when, with the lasso or bola in hand, 
they course the broad campanhas of Eio Grande do Sul in 
pursuit of a wild steer or a savage bull. Decked out with 
broad-brimmed sombreros, leather chaparejos, huge rowel 
spurs, ponchos of many colors, machetes at their sides and 
revolvers in their holsters, they are, when mounted on their 
fiery, well-trained steeds, most picturesque objects, and 

1 ' ' Der Matte oder Parana-Tee, Seine Gewinnung und Verwertung, sein 
gegenwartiger und Kiinf tiger Verbrauch, ' ' p. 54, by Eduard Heinze, Berlin, 
1910. See also "En Argentine de Buenos- Aires au Gran Chaeo, " p. 404, by 
Jules Huret, Paris, 1912. 

117 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

seem, when flying over the undulating plains of their native 
land, like lineal descendants of the centaurs of ancient 
Thessaly. 

The campos of Rio Grande do Sul comprise about two- 
thirds of the area of the state, and it is this part that sup- 
plies the chief article of export of the country — a com- 
modity that is as peculiar and as unique in its way as is 
the mate of Parana. 

This article of commerce is xarque — dried beef — which 
is prepared in immense quantities in the numerous sala- 
deiros or meat-curing factories, where the beef is salted, 
dried and prepared for shipment. The xarque usually 
appears in large slices, often more than three feet in length. 
The annual output of this dried beef is about two hundred 
million pounds. Its market, however, is confined chiefly 
to the torrid states of the northern part of the republic, 
where it is impossible to obtain, or to preserve fresh beef. 
When first prepared, it is an agreeable article of diet, but, 
as it gets old, it becomes very dry, tough and rank. Yet, 
notwithstanding all these drawbacks, I should prefer it, in 
the tropics, to our ordinary canned beef, which is so fre- 
quently a cause of ptomaine poisoning. Xarque, boiled 
with black beans, constitutes what the natives call a fei- 
joada, and is a favorite dish with the laboring classes. As 
long as he can have his ferjoada and mandioca, with the 
various tropical fruits which are always to be had in abun- 
dance, the caboclo thinks he is living well and is ready for 
the severest labor in field or forest. 

Everything in terra gaucha interested me — its splendid 
grazing lands, which are much like the rolling prairies of 
Texas or Montana, as well as its dashing and romantic 
vaqueros who, from the earliest colonial times, have been 
renowned for their deeds of prowess, in peace as well as 
in war. But I was, in some respects, more interested in its 
attractive and progressive capital — Porto Alegre. This 
important entrepot counts more than a hundred thousand 

118 




Drying Mate and Preparing it for Shipment. 




Porto Alegre. 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

inhabitants, and is, after Sao Paulo, the most populous 
city in southern Brazil. 

I was eager to visit it because it has been, for three 
quarters of a century, the chief commercial center of the 
numerous German colonies that owed their existence to the 
energy and enterprise of Dom Pedro I. The first immi- 
grants established themselves in the immediate vicinity of 
Porto Alegre, but, from the capital as a center, they gradu- 
ally spread themselves over a great part of the state. Like 
their compatriots in the United States of the North, they 
courageously pushed into the depths of the virgin forest 
and the native Brazilians soon became aware of the exist- 
ence of long chains of settlements and villages and towns 
where not only the manners and customs of the people 
were German but also the language as well. German was 
the language taught in the schools as well as that spoken 
in the homes and places of business of these sturdy arrivals 
from the Fatherland. 

So true is this that one may travel from Sao Leopoldo, 
near Porto Alegre, for almost one hundred and fifty miles 
towards the west and rarely hear any language but German. 
The greetings of the peasants on the highway are a cordial 
guten Tag or guten Abend, and their accent is as marked as 
that of a newcomer from Thuringia or the Rhineland. They 
are kind and hospitable, and, in this respect, remind one of 
the Pennsylvania Dutch of a generation ago. They have 
everywhere their Vereine — social and athletic clubs — where 
the customs of their fathers are as rigidly preserved as in 
any part of Germany. In the larger towns, beer is the 
favorite beverage of the club members, but in the interior, 
far from the railroad, mate takes its place. Everywhere 
one finds large families of light-haired, ruddy-faced chil- 
dren, and to listen to their animated prattling in German 
one could readily fancy oneself in a country home in Ba- 
varia, or in a village in Hanover. 

As an indication of the almost miraculous manner in 

119 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

which, the Germans have multiplied in Eio Grande do Sul, 
it suffices to state that the number of German immigrants 
in the state in 1859, was not more than twenty thousand. 
Now, after only two generations, their descendants number 
two hundred thousand. 1 If this same rate of increase 
should continue for a few more generations — and there is 
no apparent reason why it should not — one can readily see 
what will eventually be its effect on the social and economic, 
if not the political, status of this part of Brazil. In the 
adjoining state of Santa Catharina, the Germans already 
constitute twenty per cent, of the population and the rate 
of increase there is apparently as great as it is in Eio 
Grande do Sul. 

Is it any wonder, then, that there should have been in 
Brazil, for years past, an agitation against what the Brazil- 
ians were pleased to call "The German Peril" — that cer- 
tain journalists and statesmen descried in the southern part 
of the republic the menace of an independent nation like 
that of the Boers, or the making of a people who would 
eventually apply to the Fatherland for recognition as a 
colony of the German Empire? And is it surprising that 
certain ardent Pan-Germanists should have confidently 
looked forward to the day when they should see the German 
eagle floating over the fertile lands of Rio Grande do Sul, 
Santa Catharina and Parana, and that they should, at last, 
realize their long-cherished ambition of securing a per- 
manent foothold in the Western Hemisphere ? 

Even in our own country, Deutschtum in South Amer- 
ica became a subject of perennial interest and paramount 
importance, and our government, ever on guard against 
any violation of the Monroe Doctrine, kept a watchful eye 
on the progress of events in the broad stretch of territory 
drained by the Yguassu and the Uruguay. 

Was there any reason for the apprehension of the Bra- 
zilians, or any solid ground for the hopes and ambitions of 

^'Brazil," p. 297, by Pierre Denis, London, 1911. 

120 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

the Pan-Germanists ? My own conclusion, as the result of 
rather careful inquiries in various parts of Brazil, is that 
there was not. The fact that the Germans of Southern 
Brazil have, for two generations, been so attached to their 
language, and to the manners and customs of their fore- 
fathers is explained by their total isolation from the other 
inhabitants of the country. For, until recently, there were 
no railroads connecting the colonies of the interior with 
one another or with the cities and towns of other parts of 
Brazil. Outside of Porto Alegre and certain towns near 
the littoral, there was practically no communication be- 
tween Germans and natives. There was, then, no reason 
why the colonists should learn Portuguese, or why they 
should abandon the habits of life of their ancestors. Under 
such conditions, anything like national assimilation or ab- 
sorption by people with whom they never came in contact 
was out of the question. To all appearances, the colonists 
remained as German at heart and as loyal to their original 
nationality as if they were still citizens of the Fatherland. 

But, notwithstanding these appearances, the great ma- 
jority of the Germans in Rio Grande do Sul, as well as in 
Parana and Santa Catharina, are loyal Brazilian citizens — 
as loyal as Dr. Muller, Brazil's eminent minister of foreign 
affairs, whose grandfather was a German immigrant and 
whose mother was German born — and they will tell you so 
unhesitatingly. In the isolated country districts, the Ger- 
mans of the second and third generation know little about 
Germany, except by tradition, and have no more attachment 
to it — probably not so much — than have the people of Ger- 
man descent in the United States. 

And why should they have? Their lot in the great 
majority of cases is happier in Brazil than was that of 
their fathers in Germany. For here there is no suffering 
from the constantly increasing subdivision of the soil, as 
in Europe. On the contrary, there is a surplus of land for 
all. And if markets are not always as accessible as might 

121 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

be desired, there is for everyone an unfailing supply of 
fresh and wholesome food. So true is this that one might 
say of the German pioneers in the forest primeval of Brazil 
what Longfellow in ' ' Evangeline " sang of the inhabitants 
of Acadie : 

"There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in 
abundance." 

This may be said of many even today, but there are also 
many others who are rapidly accumulating wealth, and 
who, in the smaller towns, as well as in cities like Blumenau, 
Curityba and Porto Alegre, are the recognized leaders of 
commerce and industry. 

With the advent of improved means of communication, 
the apparent refractoriness of certain Germans to assimila- 
tion will gradually disappear. And nothing will contribute 
more to the fusion of the German with the Brazilian in 
southern Brazil than the completion of the Brazilian rail- 
way. For it brings into business and social relationship 
peoples who have been separated by untoward conditions 
rather than national antipathy. It is, therefore, only a 
question of a short time, until we shall see in Eio Grande 
do Sul, and the two States to the north, the same blending 
of nationalities as we have seen in our own country. Then, 
in Southern Brazil, we shall see the descendants of Germans, 
who will amalgamate with the Brazilians, developing a new 
type of men — as every new country produces a new type — 
men who will resemble neither their German forebears nor 
their Brazilian compatriots — but rather men like the hardy 
pioneers of our Far West — men of strong character, great 
initiative, quick decision and dauntless enterprise. When 
this day shall arrive, and it is not so far distant, enthusias- 
tic Pan-Germanists will cease to dream of Deutsclitmn in 
South America and Brazilians and others will learn that 
the so-called German peril was more imaginary than real. 

122 



IN SEMI-TROPICAL BRAZIL 

One thing is certain and that is that there is no evidence 
that Germany as a nation has ever had any designs of con- 
quest in Southern Brazil. Nothing authorizes one to con- 
clude that the Imperial Government ever entertained the 
project, even as an hypothesis. German leaders of com- 
merce and industry may have striven to spread and con- 
solidate German influence, but they have been doing that 
for several decades in all parts of the world. That the 
German Government, under the Kaiser's inspiration, has 
in every legitimate way encouraged trade conquest in all 
the republics of South America no one will deny. But that 
it ever seriously contemplated the conquest or annexation 
of any part of the continent, must, until we shall have more 
positive evidence than has so far been adduced, be con- 
sidered as nothing more than a chimera conjured up by 
overenthusiastic Pan-Germanists and oversuspicious Bra- 
zilian journalists and politicans. 1 

1 M. E. Tonnelat, in his thoughtful and unbiased ' ' L 'Expansion Allemande 
Hors d 'Europe, ' ' in discussing the status of the German colonies in Brazil, 
declares : ' ' Quelques pangermanistes exaltes ont pu rever 1 'annexion a 1 ' 
Allemagne des trois Etats meridionaux du Bresil, Parana, Santa Catharina et 
Eio Grande do Sul. Mais le gouvernement imperial ne parait dispose a tenter 
1'aventure. Eien n'autorise a penser qu' il en ait meme envisage l'hypothese. 
Jusqu'en 1896, le rescrit von der Heydt a maintenu en Prusse la defense de 
toute propagande en faveur de 1 'emigration vers le Bresil. II n'a d'ailleurs 
ete revoque, en 1896, que pour les trois Etats de Parana, de Santa Catharina 
et de Eio Grande do Sul. II subsiste encore pour le reste du Bresil. Si des 
initiatives privees ont essaye d'y repandre et d'y consolider 1 'influence alle- 
mande, on peut dire que les circles officiels n 'y etaient pour rien. ' ' P. 144 et 
seq., Paris, 1908. 

This is in keeping -with the view of Sir Horace Eumbold who declares that 
the Germans of Argentina are, "A quiet, unobtrusive, but by no means unin- 
fluential body of men, who steadily act up to the punning precept inculcated 
by the Iron Chancellor on one of his diplomatists, whom he was sending out to 
South American regions — to seek trade and beware of 'international difficul- 
ties' — suclien sie Handel, dber ja Jceine Handel." "The Great Silver Eiver," 
p. Ill, London, 1890. 

That Bismarck's policy is that which is still pursued by the German Gov- 
ernment seems clearly indicated by a recent pronouncement of General Fried- 
rich von Bernhardi, in which occurs this significant paragraph: 

' ' That victorious Germany would seek expansion or political advantages in 

123 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

South America is, from the purely military standpoint, so absurd that I am 
surprised any thinking person could consider it seriously. It would be such 
an utter military impossibility for us to maintain ourselves there; would bring 
all South America, not to mention England and France, against us, and for 
what purpose? What possible chance would we have? 

"A legitimate commercial rivalry with the United States, yes. That ex- 
isted in South America before the war, and will return again after the war; 
but any political purposes or hope of political advantages on our part? Out 
of the question." 



CHAPTER VII 
UBUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

We left Porto Alegre shortly after sunset, and the fol- 
lowing afternoon were at Santa Anna do Livramento, on 
the Uruguayan frontier. Contrary to what we had been 
told in Rio de Janeiro, we experienced, during our long 
trip by rail, no discomfort either from dust or from heat. 
Every hour the journey was delightful to us. The tempera- 
ture was always bland; occasional showers kept the road- 
bed in fine condition for traveling, and the Brazilian people 
were everywhere so courteous and hospitable that we could 
not but feel at home among them. And when the hour 
came to leave them and their interesting country, we left 
them with unfeigned regret. Recalling our pleasant experi- 
ence I should, therefore, strongly advise those who contem- 
plate a visit to Brazil and Argentina, to make the journey 
from Rio de Janeiro to Montevideo by rail, as we did. They 
will always remember it with pleasure, for they will find 
much along the entire line to interest and instruct them — 
much that will be a revelation to them not only regarding 
the wonderful resources of the country but also regarding 
the energy and progressiveness of its inhabitants. 

Across the border from Santa Anna do Livramento is 
the town of Rivera. But, although those two towns are 
located in different republics, they seem, at a distance, to 
be but one. And, notwithstanding their proximity to each 
other, their aspects are in many respects quite different. 
Santa Anna is, in the first place, considerably older than 
Rivera, as is attested both by its older trees and the style 
of architecture of its buildings. Then the general color 

125 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

of the houses in Eivera is red, whereas that of Santa Anna 
is white. In both cases the same kind of stone is used, but 
the Brazilian, unlike the Uruguayan buildings, are faced 
with white plaster. Besides this, the streets of Rivera are 
much better paved than those of its Brazilian neighbor, 
and also much better provided with shade trees. These dif- 
ferences, which are sufficiently striking, indicate clearly 
where one town ends and where the other begins. But 
that there may be no doubt about it, there is a houseless 
avenue between the two places which serves as a boundary 
line. At this place are seen the custom house officers and 
the frontier guards of Brazil and Uruguay, 1 who fraternize 
with one another as if all their interests were identical. 

Here we bade farewell to the officials of the Brazil Rail- 
way Company who had accompanied us from Rio de Janeiro 
and Sao Paulo, and had contributed so much to the pleasure 
of our journey through Southern Brazil. And here, too, we 
were welcomed by a delegation sent by the President of 
Uruguay to take charge of us and accompany us to Monte- 
video. They had a sumptuous special train ready for us, 
and in a short time we had all our belongings transferred 
to it, and were soon on our way to the capital of Uruguay. 

Our journey from Rivera to Montevideo was made on 
the Central Uruguay Railway — the longest and most im- 
portant line in the republic. Unlike the Brazil Railway, 
which is a narrow-gauge, the Central Uruguay is a broad- 
gauge road. The track is well ballasted and in perfect 
condition, while the rolling stock is of the best. The parlor, 
sleeping- and dining-cars of our train were luxuriously fur- 
nished and fully as well equipped as those of our best 
limited trains in the United States. The service was excel- 
lent and the courtesy of the employees was admirable. All 

1 In South America, Uruguay is frequently called La Banda Oriental — the 
East Side — because it is on the east side of the Uruguay River. For a similar 
reason, the inhabitants of the Banda Oriental are called los Orientales who, 
in the United States, would colloquially be designated as "Easterners." 

126 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

this made us congratulate ourselves again for the hun- 
dredth time that we had elected to make the journey from 
Rio de Janeiro to Montevideo by land rather than by sea. 

In striking contrast to Brazil, Uruguay is marked by 
its almost total absence of forest lands. There are, it is 
true, stretches of woodland here and there ixi the latter 
Republic, but nowhere will one find those immense selvas 
which are such conspicuous features of Brazil from Rio 
Grande do Sul to Amazonas and from Para to Peru. It is 
almost entirely a prairie country, and its undulating, grassy 
plains are almost exactly like those of northern Texas or 
western Russia. 

Owing to the recent advent of the railroad, the northern 
part of Uruguay is but sparsely settled. Towns are small 
and widely separated from one another. Everything in- 
dicates that it is still a land of pioneers, and nothing prob- 
ably more than the primitive habitations which dot the 
landscape. Most of them are rude huts constructed of 
reeds or turf or a kind of adobe. Some are little more than 
shelters made of cowhides, like those used by the natives 
of Patagonia. But not infrequently we meet with grotesque 
cabins composed chiefly of tin cans and strips of corrugated 
iron, much like those which, a few decades ago, were seen 
in our western mining camps, or along some of our trans- 
continental railroads in Colorado and Arizona. 

But the inmates of these humble homes seemed, never- 
theless, to be blessed with health and happiness. They 
were passing through the first trying stages of pioneer life, 
but judging by their energy and thrift, success will soon re- 
ward their labors and they will ere long have larger and 
more comfortable homes for themselves and for their nu- 
merous children. 

I often wondered how it was possible for the large 
families I frequently saw huddled together in small reed 
or mud huts to live and still retain health. Undoubtedly 
their active, outdoor life aids immensely in warding off 

127 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

diseases to which they might otherwise be exposed. Be- 
sides, these habitations, however rude, are always well ven- 
tilated and in this respect are far more sanitary than the 
narrow, ill-ventilated, noisome quarters among the slums 
of our large cities. I have often slept in these hovels of 
the poor in South America and felt nothing the worse for 
it. Whatever other drawbacks there may have been, there 
was always an abundance of fresh air. Of course, the be- 
nign and temperate climate of Uruguay counts for much. 
It makes it possible for one to live and enjoy good health 
in mere sheds, which in more rigorous latitudes would be 
quite out of the question. The merry groups of hardy, 
chubby children, whom we saw playing around the dilapi- 
dated shanties they called their homes, were conclusive 
evidence that there was little, if any, suffering caused by 
lack of better shelter. Fresh air and sunshine are Nature's 
panacea everywhere, but the effects of this panacea seem 
to be more marked in tropical and subtropical climates than 
anywhere else. 

We never tired of admiring the tranquil and diversified 
beauties of the Uruguayan landscape. It was restful both 
to the eye and to the mind. There was nothing of the gran- 
deur of the Andean regions, for there are no mountains in 
Uruguay, no volcanoes, none of those sublime manifesta- 
tions of Nature's dynamic energy which are so conspicuous 
in many other parts of the continent. But one does not 
always wish to be a spectator of force and majesty. There 
are times when one prefers to turn to delicacy and beauty ; 
when arcadian simplicity and loveliness appeal to one more 
strongly than what is stupendous and grandiose. 

We felt this particularly while traversing the rich, un- 
dulating plains of Uruguay. The only breaks in the broad, 
grassy expanse were rolling downs or fantastic mesas like 
those of Colorado or New Mexico, or occasional rocky bluffs 
and cliffs and ravines such as distinguish the picturesque 
Valley of Eden in the northern part of the Eepublic. Every- 

128 



UEUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

where, within the field of view, there was a wealth of ver- 
dure and bloom that rendered the landscape as exquisite 
as a picture by a master. We had left behind us, it is true, 
the gorgeous and exuberant vegetation of the tropics, and 
probably for that very reason we were able to enjoy the 
more the companionship of Flora's humbler but no less 
dainty children. There were blossoms of every hue and 
fragrance — white mallows, blue lupins, yellow marguerites, 
scarlet verbenas, purple thistles, and delicately tinted hon- 
eysuckles and passion-flowers. There were large bushes ten 
and twelve feet high that seemed to be a mass of delicate 
mauve flowers. There were bloomless shrubs covered with 
a parasitic sweet-pea. There were harebells and daisies, 
and sunflower and cactus blossoms in abundance. But the 
flower that was most conspicuous, that might almost be 
called the national flower, was the ubiquitous flor morala 
which carpets the landscape with glowing bands and patches 
of richest purple. Go where one will, one finds massed 
banks of the blazing flor morala — flowers that grow in such 
profusion that they extinguish all competitors. Small won- 
der, then, is it that Uruguay has been called "The Purple 
Land." The name adequately describes a feature of the 
country which is sure to arrest the attention of every trav- 
eler. 

But that which gives most local color to this marvelous 
land of unattainable horizons — horizons which, like the 
mirages of the Sahara, may be approached but never at- 
tained — is the dashing, picturesque Gaucho. Like his neigh- 
bor of Eio Grande do Sul, he is fond of display. His saddle 
is ornamented with silver, as are also his huge, murderous- 
looking spurs. His poncho is a creation of many colors and 
his hat is a near relative of the Mexican sombrero. And, 
like the Arab, his greatest delight is a strong, blooded steed. 
This is his inseparable companion — the joy of his life, the 
object of his unceasing solicitude. He is never happier 
than when in the saddle, curveting and caracoling before a 

129 



THEOUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

crowd of admiring spectators, or careering like the wind 
over the broad pastures of a well-stocked estancia. With a 
knife in his belt, a revolver in his holster and a mate bowl 
slung by his saddle, he is prepared for a journey of any 
length and for deeds of daring in any field of adventure. 
He has all the audacity and powers of endurance of the 
cattleman of Rio Grande do Sul but, in addition to these 
traits, he possesses other characteristics which make him 
a more impressive type of his peculiar and romantic race. 
He is taller, of a fairer complexion, and of a temperament 
that is quite distinctive. Fearless, austere, dignified, he has 
a keen sense of honor and of the duties of hospitality. He 
is a born fighter, and when excited exhibits all the ferocity 
of the Spaniard and Charrua Indian combined. It was men 
of this class who fought under Artigas, the national hero, 
and secured the independence of Uruguay. It was the same 
race of men who defeated the Portuguese in many a bloody 
conflict, and who courageously battled against the trained 
legions of Brazil and Argentina in many a fierce onslaught. 
No people in South America are more patriotic, and none 
would make greater sacrifices to conserve the honor and 
the independence of their country. 

The number of Negroes in Uruguay is extremely small 
compared with that which obtains in Brazil. The most of 
them are found in the northern part of the Republic, near 
Rio Grande do Sul. As for the Indians, they have long 
since disappeared. The blood of the Charruas — the war- 
like tribe that gave so much trouble to the Spaniards dur- 
ing the period of the conquest and during early colonial 
times — is still found in some of the inhabitants, but the 
strain is so slight that it is scarcely perceptible, except in 
the temperament of some of the restless and roving Gau- 
chos. 

The fauna of Uruguay has but few notable representa- 
tives. Those of most commercial value are the rhea, or 
American ostrich, and the fur-seal. Both of these, until 

130 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

recently, were found in large numbers, but, owing to the 
systematic pursuit of the rhea and the indiscriminate kill- 
ing of the seal, both were threatened with extinction, until 
the Government took measures to insure their preservation 
and increase. One may have some idea of the vast num- 
ber of ostriches that roamed the plains of Uruguay in 1909 
from the fact that, during that year, more than fifty thou- 
sand pounds of ostrich feathers were exported to the United 
States and Europe. The feathers of the rhea are not 
nearly so valuable as those of the African ostrich, except 
certain specially selected plumes which command a good 
price. 

The seals congregate at the Lobos Islands, east of Mon- 
tevideo. Here the number of animals annually slaughtered 
for their oil and skins has been from ten to twenty thou- 
sand. But, as in our Pribilof Islands, off Alaska, they are 
threatened with extermination, unless adequate measures 
are soon devised for their protection. 

Considering its fertile soil and favorable climate, one 
is surprised that Uruguay does not devote more attention 
to agriculture. So far only about three per cent, of the 
country is under cultivation. The chief cereals produced 
are wheat and maize, although oats and barley are also 
beginning to receive attention. It is expected, however, 
that the various lines of railway recently constructed will 
open up new territory specially suitable for the cultivation 
of wheat and maize, and that the yield of these important 
staples will soon be very greatly augmented. 

One need not travel long in Uruguay before realizing 
that it is essentially a pastoral country. There is less 
waste land in it than in any of the other South American 
republics. There are no mountains or deserts; no mys- 
terious and unexplored hinterland, as in Brazil and Ven- 
ezuela. The soil is not only fertile and well watered by 
countless rivers and streams, but is also provided with 
an abundance of nutritious native grasses that are admira- 

131 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

bly adapted to grazing. Indeed, I do not think there is 
better pasturage in the southern continent than in the 
splendid downlands watered by the great Uruguay and 
its numerous affluents. The llanos of Venezuela and Colom- 
bia are famous for their succulent grasses and for their 
vast cattle ranches, but they have drawbacks from which 
the pasture lands of Uruguay are exempt. These are the 
frequent lack of water, and the noxious insects which infest 
the herds and often occasion immense losses. 

Pastoral pursuits in Uruguay date back full three hun- 
dred years. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
Hernando Arias de Saavedra, the colonial governor of the 
Rio de la Plata region, shipped a hundred head of cattle 
from Buenos Aires to the Banda Oriental and then turned 
them loose. Here they multiplied so rapidly that the broad 
plains were soon covered with them. So numerous did 
they eventually become that they were as ruthlessly slaugh- 
tered solely for their hides as were our buffalo herds only 
a few decades ago. These one hundred head of cattle were 
the beginning of Uruguay's pastoral wealth, the origin of 
those vast herds of native, long-horned cattle which have 
since spread over such great stretches of territory. 

For a long time the Uruguayan was satisfied with these 
Criollo, or native cattle, and made no attempt to improve 
the stock. But it is quite different now. For today 
estancieros everywhere in the Republic vie with one an- 
other in their efforts to secure the best quality of stock and 
to improve it by cross-breeding. England, France, Hol- 
land, Belgium, Switzerland are scoured for the best types 
of pedigree stock. These are imported in large numbers, 
regardless of price. A Uruguayan stockman would not 
hesitate to pay five thousand dollars for a single animal 
if he thought it would serve his purpose of increasing the 
value of his herd. The Devon, the Hereford, the Durham, 
the Aberdeen Angus are introduced from England for the 
production of beef, while Swiss, Norman, Dutch and Flem- 

132 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

ish thoroughbreds are sought for the development of the 
dairy industry. 

Many of the larger estancias are quite celebrated for 
the number of their registered cattle. Some of those be- 
longing to private individuals count fully a thousand, while 
the estates of the famous Lemco Company have far more. 
No one takes more pride in his blooded cattle than the 
Uruguayan estanciero. He will talk of them by the hour, 
as a Kentucky horse-breeder talks of the favorite racers 
of his stud. He prizes them very often not so much for 
the money they may bring him as for the pleasure he 
experiences in being the possessor of beautifully marked, 
elegantly formed, pure-bred animals — animals that take 
the prizes at agricultural shows and give their owner pres- 
tige and preeminence among his fellows. 

The systematic efforts which Uruguayan cattlemen have 
for several decades been making to improve the quality of 
their herds; the encouragement the Government has been 
giving to those who could exhibit the best specimens of 
mestizo, or blooded stock, have produced results of far- 
reaching importance. They have converted the great 
estancias of the country into veritable gold mines for their 
owners, and made Uruguay one of the great sources of 
the world's meat supply. According to the latest esti- 
mates, there are now about eight million cattle in the 
Republic, most of which would compare favorably with 
the best animals marketed in the stockyards of Kansas 
City or Chicago. Large quantities of Uruguayan beef are 
now shipped to Europe and the United States, and, al- 
though the amount is rapidly increasing, the demand is far 
in excess of the supply. The industry is still in its 
infancy, for as yet only a small part of the boundless pas- 
tures of Uruguay have been utilized for stock raising. 
When the vast, unoccupied areas shall be covered with the 
tens of millions of cattle which they are capable of sup- 
porting, then, indeed, will Uruguay come into its own and 

133 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

be everywhere recognized as one of the world's great cen- 
ters of food-supply. 

Everybody is familiar with Liebig 's extract of beef, 
but few in our country are aware that the original home 
of this important industry is in Uruguay. For half a 
century its headquarters have been in the enterprising 
town of Fray Bentos on the Uruguay River. Here the 
celebrated Lemco and Oxo Company has what has been 
aptly called "the greatest kitchen in the world." Across 
the river, at Colon, the same company has a similar fac- 
tory of even greater magnitude. One can judge of the 
immense scale on which this corporation does business and 
of the world-wide demand for their carefully prepared 
products, not only extract of beef, but also canned meats 
of various kinds, when one learns that several hundred 
thousand head of cattle are slaughtered annually at these 
two factories and that a large proportion of these cattle 
are raised on the company's own estancias. The grazing 
lands of the Lemco and Oxo Company embrace no less 
than five million acres and their land holdings are con- 
tinually increasing. 

It is worthy of note that this colossal industry had its 
origin in the epoch-making researches of the famous Ger- 
man chemist, Justus von Liebig, the founder of organic 
chemistry. But he never, I am sure, imagined that the 
investigations in his laboratory on the rational preparation 
of foods would lead to such extraordinary results as are 
now witnessed in the Lemco factory at Fray Bentos and 
elsewhere. When the first specimen of meat extract was 
brought to the illustrious chemist, he submitted it to a 
very careful analysis. Having found that it was made in 
accordance with his formula, he gave it his approval and 
permitted it to be called Extractum Carnis Liebig. But 
he required that the manufacturers, in return for the con- 
tinued use of his name on their product, should frequently 
submit to him, as chief of the scientific staff of the com- 

134 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

pany, samples of the extract for analysis. He was unwill- 
ing to have his name associated with the enterprise, unless 
he could personally vouch for the purity of the commodi- 
ties it put on the market. More than this, it was further 
stipulated that his successors in office should have the same 
rights in this respect as he himself had demanded. The 
company has faithfully complied with this condition up to 
the present day, a full half-century after it was made. It 
has counted, and still counts among the chiefs of its scien- 
tific corps some of the most eminent chemists of Germany 
and England. 

The chemical, veterinary, and bacteriological laborato- 
ries of the company are provided with the most perfect 
appliances that modern science has been able to devise. 
These are in charge of a large staff of chemists from the 
best universities of Europe, and they leave nothing undone 
that will insure the purity of their product before it leaves 
the factory. They have established a world-wide reputa- 
tion for the wholesomeness and value of the Lemco prod- 
ucts, and it is not, then, surprising that the company is 
yearly extending its activities in order to meet the ever- 
increasing demand from all parts of the world for what is 
now ranked as one of the most important of aliments. 1 

1 ' ' The Lemco and Oxo Company, ' ' it has well been said, ' ' illustrates the 
history of an idea, which occurred, in 1850, to Baron Justus von Liebig, who 
suggested that, instead of killing cattle for their hides and tallow and leaving 
their carcasses to rot on the ground, ranchers might do well to devise an 
economical process of obtaining an extract of meat from the neglected beef. 
In 1865 the idea was at last put into practice. Baron Liebig says: 'In 1862 
I received a visit from Herr Gilbert, an engineer of Hamburg, who had spent 
many years in South America and Uruguay, where hundreds of thousands of 
sheep and oxen are killed solely for the hides and fat. He told me that 
directly he saw my account of the preparation of this extract he came to 
Munich with the intention of learning the process and then returning to South 
America to undertake the manufacture on a large scale. I, therefore, recom- 
mended Herr Gilbert to Professor Pettenkofer, who willingly made him familiar 
with every detail of the process. He then returned to Uruguay in the summer 
of 1863, but, owing to many difficulties which generally hinder the introduction 
and management of a new business, it was almost a year before he could 

135 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

But there are other large establishments which swallow 
up hundreds of thousands of beeves every year. Among 
these are numerous frigorificos — refrigerating plants — 
some of which are in the immediate vicinity of Monte- 
video. These supply chilled and frozen meats for the for- 
eign markets. 

Here, too, the Chicago Beef Trust has gained a foot- 
hold. Years ago it realized that its strongest competitor 
for the world's meat trade was going to be in Uruguay and 
Argentina, and it made haste to stretch out, octopus-like, 
its strong arms and strangle native industry before it be- 
came too powerful. 

Then there are also the saladeros for the production 
of tasajo, or jerked beef. These require more than half a 
million cattle a year. The chief markets for this product 
is the same as for that prepared in Rio Grande do Sul: 
viz., Northern Brazil, although a considerable amount is 
also shipped to Cuba, Porto Rico, and certain of the 
Portuguese colonies. The importance of this industry 
can be realized when it is known that the amount of dried 
beef exported each year amounts to about fifty thousand 
tons. 

But these stupendous facts do not tell the whole story 
of the magnitude of the pastoral industry in Uruguay. 
We must also advert to the dairy industry which, although 
of but recent origin, is beginning to exhibit indications 
of rapid development, especially in Colonia Suiza. Here 
butter and cheese are prepared by the industrious Swiss 
colonists on an extensive scale, and the product promises 
soon to rival in quality the celebrated brands of Switzer- 
land or Denmark. From all indications the time will come 

actually commence the manufacture. ' It was arranged that the extract should 
be called ' Liebig, ' and in due course the first sample of about eighty pounds 
of beef extract arrived at Munich, and was pronounced highly satisfactory 
considering that it was a product from the flesh of half -wild animals." Cf. 
"Argentina," p. 206 by W. A. Hirst, London, 1912, and "El Uruguay a 
traves de un Siglo, " p. 315 et seq., by Carlos M. Maneso, Montevideo, 1910. 

136 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

when the Colonia Suiza will be as great a dairy center as 
Elgin is at present, and when its output will be as famous. 

I would not, however, have the reader infer that the 
pastoral industry of Uruguay is confined to the raising 
and breeding of cattle. Far from it. There are now nearly 
three times as many sheep as cattle in the Republic and 
their number is continually increasing. The same care is 
exercised in the breeding of sheep as of cattle. The best 
merinos from Spain, the best Rambouillets from France, 
and the best Southdowns from England are imported in 
large numbers to improve the native stock, and to insure 
the development of the best type of meat- and wool- 
producing breeds. Uruguayan mutton is already in great 
demand in the European markets, while the wool furnished 
by Uruguayan sheep is everywhere recognized as being 
of superior quality. 

A word, too, must be said about the superb horses 
everywhere seen in this interesting country. No one is 
fonder of a fine, pure-bred horse than the Uruguayan 
estanciero, and to gratify his love of the best types of 
equine beauty, strength and fleetness he has his agents at 
work everywhere looking for blooded horses, from the 
steppes of Russia to the blue-grass region of Kentucky. 

It was interesting to observe the changes in the land- 
scape as we gradually approached the national capital. 
The humble ranchos of the pioneers of the north were 
replaced by the comfortable homes and imposing mansions 
of the rich estancieros of the long-settled districts of the 
south. In place of the broad, open plain, unbroken by 
tree or forest, there were long avenues and extensive 
groves of poplar and eucalyptus. Interspersed among 
these, and adorning the gardens, were clumps of orange, 
mimosa and paraiso trees whose lovely blossoms delighted 
the eye and filled the air with their fragrance. Blushing- 
roses and golden honeysuckles made gay the greenswards 
which encircled picturesque quintas. Bright, prattling 

137 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

children, well dressed and well bred, enlivened the scene 
and told one at a glance that one was in a land of plenty 
and contentment. 

We arrived in Montevideo early in the forenoon, and, 
after calling on the President of the Republic and other 
government officials, who all received us with the utmost 
cordiality, we proceeded to visit the principal points of 
interest in and outside the capital. We were much im- 
pressed by the broad streets, the beautiful plazas and 
stately edifices of Uruguay's noble capital. Most of the 
larger buildings are of the French or Italian Renaissance 
style of architecture. The only important structures dat- 
ing from colonial times are the government palace and the 
cathedral. 

Montevideo is the youngest of South American capitals 
and has an air of modernity about it that is totally absent 
from La Paz, Quito and Bogota. A metropolis of about 
four hundred thousand inhabitants, it everywhere mani- 
fests enterprise and prosperity. But, although everyone 
is busy, no one seems to be in a hurry. Business is 
transacted quietly and expeditiously, without any of that 
feverish haste that characterizes so many large shipping 
centers in other parts of the world. 

Most of the public buildings are models of archi- 
tecture. Many of them seem to be almost reproductions 
of some of the palatial structures of Paris or Vienna. A 
large number of the educational buildings would do credit 
to any city in Europe or the United States. Among those 
that particularly attracted our attention were the Uni- 
versity, the School of Medicine, the Atheneum, the diocesan 
seminary, the chemical laboratory, the hygienic institute, 
and several schools for secondary instruction. Then there 
is the large convent school of the Salesian sisters. The 
work accomplished by. these devoted religious in the in- 
struction of poor children deserves all the encomiums lav- 
ished on them by the people of Montevideo. The charitable 

138 




Harbor of Montevideo with the Cerro in the Distance. 




Cathedral op Montevideo. 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

institutions, likewise, merit special mention. In few places 
are better provisions made for the poor and the sick, for 
the insane and the foundling. But this care of the helpless 
and suffering is characteristic of the people of all parts 
of South America. They are as charitable as they are 
hospitable, and, as every traveler knows, there are no more 
hospitable people in the world. 

And yet, although the public buildings of Montevideo 
are in many respects so remarkable, I was much more inter- 
ested in the homes of the people, especially those located 
in the city's suburbs. Here one finds even greater varieties 
of architecture than in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. 
There is every type of dwelling from an Indian bungalow 
and a Swiss chalet to a Moorish or a Venetian palace. All 
combine beauty with comfort and convenience and, fre- 
quently, with luxury. 

But the gardens ! And the flowers ! Never have I seen 
in any part of the world such marvelous exhibitions of 
flowering plants and shrubs, native and exotic, as are found 
about the homes and quintas of the Montevideans. They 
surpass in profusion and exuberance even those of Rio de 
Janeiro, and that is saying very much, indeed. California 
is justly famed as a flowerland. So is the French Riviera, 
but I have never seen in either of these favored regions 
of Flora such gorgeous displays of bloom as I have wit- 
nessed in and around Uruguay's magnificent capital. With 
backgrounds of palm, orange, myrtle, magnolia, bamboo, 
mimosa, alternating with the native paraiso and ombii 
trees and the Australian eucalyptus, one finds beds of 
pansies, carnations, marguerites and lilies, together with 
hedges of lilac and guelder-rose and cineraria, while walls 
and houses are covered with multi-colored draperies of 
wistaria, honeysuckle, Bougainvillea and numerous other 
creepers of every form and hue. 

It is, however, in their roses that the Montevideans take 
their greatest pride. They are found everywhere, in pri- 

139 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

vate gardens and in public parks, in clumps and hedges, 
trained to trellises and columns, or falling in showers over 
walls and railings. But nowhere are they seen to such 
advantage as in the Parque Urbano and in the Paseo del 
Prado — those exquisite pleasure grounds of the national 
capital. Here there are no less than eight hundred varie- 
ties of roses collected from every clime. The rose-bushes 
themselves number many thousands. The casual observer 
would say that there are myriads of them. They are dis- 
tributed with the most exquisite taste and their care, as 
one sees at a glance, is for the gardeners a labor of love. 

As I contemplated the superb rosaries of the Paseo del 
Prado, I recalled Virgil's graphic three-word reference to 
the rose-beds of Psestum — biferique rosaria Pcesti — where 
the roses bloomed twice a year. It was of these same rose- 
beds of Paestum that Ausonius drew the charming picture : 

Vidi Paestano gaudere rosaria cultu 
Exoriente novo roscida Lucifero. 1 

Who will indite to the roses of Montevideo sonnet or 
couplet fair as of old Ausonius sang of the roses of 
Paestum? For the former are incomparably more exquis- 
ite; more varied than any bloom ever kissed by zephyr 
from Tyrrhenian sea; and more worthy, too, of immortal 
verse. 

One of the first places visited by everyone who goes 
to Montevideo for the first time is the Cerro which gives 
the city the name it now bears. It is a hill in the vicinity 
which towers more than five hundred feet above the bay 
and from which a splendid view of the capital and the 
surrounding country is obtainable. It is the most promi- 
nent elevation in the valley of the great river over whose 
estuary it stands guard. To find another approaching it in 

1 1 have watched the beds that luxuriate on Pa3stum 's well-tilled soil, all 
dewy in the young light of the rising dawn-star. 

140 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

height one must go up the flowing road to Asuncion, the 
capital of Paraguay, a thousand miles distant. 

The story goes that when this cerro was first observed 
by one of the early missionaries, while still far away from 
it, he cried out, "Montem video" — I see a mountain. In 
consequence of this, not only the hill was called Monte- 
video, but also the city which, long afterwards, was founded 
near its base. 1 The cerro is crowned by a fort and a light- 
house. The fort was at one time regarded as of great 
importance in the defense of the city, but before a modern 
siege-gun it would now have but little value. 

During the last third of a century, Montevideo has made 
extraordinary progress in every way. In 1879 its popu- 
lation was but little more than seventy thousand. Now it 
counts six times as many, and from present indications it 
will soon number a half -million. It is pleasantly located on 
a small peninsula, about a hundred feet above sea level. Its 
sanitary condition is excellent and is the object of the 
constant care of a competent staff of medical experts con- 
nected with the well-equipped hygienic and bacteriological 
laboratories. Thanks to the watchfulness of its board of 
health and its admirable climate, Montevideo can boast of 
being one of the most salubrious cities in South America. 

It is a place, too, where the traveler will wish to tarry. 
Its people are not only hospitable, like all Latin-Americans, 
but they are exceptionally refined and cultured. The mag- 
nificent Atheneum, where notable literary and scientific ses- 
sions are held, is an evidence of the Montevidean's love of 
science and literature, while the imposing Solis Theater, 
one of the largest on the continent, is a proof of their love 
of the best in opera and the drama. Before the footlights 
of this majestic building are annually seen the most notable 
lyric and dramatic artists of Europe. 

One of the first things the visitor hears discussed on his 

1 The full name of the capital of Uruguay is San Felipe y Santiago de 
Montevideo. 

141 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

arrival in the city is the program and movements of the 
Blancos and Colorados. These are the Whites and Reds, 
the rival political parties of Uruguay. Their origin dates 
back to the first half of the last century. Their names are 
derived from the fact that General Oribe, the founder of 
the "Whites, rode a white horse, while General Rivera, the 
founder of the Reds, rode a bay. The Colorados dwell 
chiefly in cities and towns, while the Blancos, for the most 
part, live in the country. Like the Bianchi and Neri of 
ancient Florence, the Whites and the Reds are strongly 
opposed to one another and their bitter feuds have given 
rise to many and protracted civil wars. And, as in the 
case of the Bianchi and the Neri, the long-standing feuds 
were occasioned chiefly by the desire of both parties to 
get control of the government, rather than by any differ- 
ence of political program, so is it with the Blancos and 
Colorados. The difference of policy, if there be any at all, 
is little more than nominal. It is the same struggle between 
the "ins" and "outs" found in many other countries — 
the struggle of the "ins" to hold power as long as pos- 
sible, and the struggle of the "outs" to eject their rivals 
and get control of the machinery of government. In spite, 
however, of all the efforts of their adversaries to oust 
them, the Colorados have now held office for more than half 
a century. 

It was in Montevideo that Colonel Roosevelt first gave 
public expression in South America to his views on the 
Monroe Doctrine. His discourses in Brazil dealt chiefly 
with progressive democracy and cognate subjects. But 
here an opportunity was given him to enunciate his posi- 
tion on a question that has been the subject of so much 
controversy in both the New and the Old World. And he 
profited by the opportunity, and it was well that he did. 
For nothing probably has given rise, especially during re- 
cent years, to greater misunderstanding in South America 
than our supposed attitude regarding the Monroe Doc- 

142 










The Founding op Buenos Aires by Juan de Garay. 




Museum of La Plata. 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

trine. While the weaker nations accepted it and felt secure 
under its protecting aegis, the more powerful republics, like 
Brazil, Argentina and Chile, began to look upon it, in its 
usual acceptation, as something of an anachronism. Ac- 
cording to them, the Monroe Doctrine, if it was to continue 
to serve the purpose for which it was originally promul- 
gated, needed modification, or, at least, required interpreta- 
tion so as to meet present demands and be acceptable to 
the three great nations of South America just mentioned. 
They did not longer wish to be considered under a. pro- 
tectorate when they felt quite able to protect themselves. 

No better interpreter of the much-discussed doctrine 
could have been found than Colonel Eoosevelt, or one to 
whose words all classes were more disposed to give heed. 
Although he spoke in an entirely unofficial capacity, he was 
looked upon as voicing the opinion of his countrymen, and 
as expressing what would be the future policy of the United 
States government, if an occasion should ever arise, 
either in South or North America, for putting the doctrine 
to a test under existing conditions. 

The first time Colonel Eoosevelt was afforded a good 
opportunity, during his visit, to express his views on the 
Monroe Doctrine was at a luncheon tendered our party 
in Montevideo. On this occasion, the President of Uruguay, 
in drinking to the health of his distinguished guest, re- 
ferred to him in few but pregnant words, as the "defender 
of the Monroe Doctrine in the interests of the whole of 
America; the stanch partisan of international justice and 
of peace with honor; the fervent propagandist of force and 
character placed at the service of public welfare." 

In replying to this toast Colonel Roosevelt said, con- 
cerning the Monroe Doctrine: "It is in no sense a doctrine 
of one-sided advantage; it is to be invoked only in the 
interest of all our commonwealths in the Western Hemi- 
sphere. It should be invoked by our nations in a spirit 
of mutual respect, and on a footing of complete equality 

143 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

of both right and obligation. Therefore, as soon as any 
country of the New World stands on a sufficiently high 
footing of orderly liberty and achieved success, of self- 
respecting strength, it becomes a guarantor of the doctrine 
on a footing of complete equality. I congratulate the coun- 
tries of South America that I have visited and am about 
to visit that their progress is such, in justice, political 
stability and material prosperity, as to make them also 
the sponsors of the Monroe Doctrine, so that, as regards 
them, all that the United States has to do is to stand ready, 
as one of the great brotherhood of American nations,, to 
join with them in upholding the doctrine should they at 
any time desire, in the interest of the Western Hemisphere, 
that we should do so. ' ' 

These ideas of Colonel Eoosevelt, so briefly expressed 
in Montevideo, were more fully developed in subsequent 
discourses elsewhere. But so clear and explicit was his 
exposition of the doctrine on this occasion that his hearers 
were forced to admit that, far from being an anachronism, 
the doctrine in question, when properly understood, is now 
as much of an actuality as it has ever been since it was 
first promulgated. The speaker's interpretation of it, and 
his declaration that all the great nations of South America 
must be considered as co-guarantors with the United States 
of the doctrine, appealed to his audience in a special manner 
and commanded, so far as one could judge, from the fre- 
quent rounds of applause which greeted the various points 
made, what was practically general assent. So impressed, 
in fact, were many by the speaker's able and original 
presentation of his views that they did not hesitate to 
declare that the time had come when the doctrine, which 
had given rise to so much controversy, should in future 
be known as the Eoosevelt-Monroe Doctrine. 

It was interesting to note the impression made on the 
people of South America when they saw an ex-President, 
who is a Protestant, traveling with a Catholic priest. For 

144 



URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 

many of them it was a matter of no little surprise. But 
it was commented on generally as an object lesson of tol- 
erance that was sure to have a good effect everywhere — 
on people of strong religious convictions as well as on 
those who have none at all. It appealed in a particular 
manner to the officers of the army and navy of the differ- 
ent countries which we traversed. ' ' Are you really a Cath- 
olic priest, as reported?" I was once asked by a noted 
admiral who sat next to me at luncheon. When I told him 
I was, he said with visible emotion : " I am delighted. "When 
I saw it announced in the paper that Colonel Roosevelt and 
a Catholic priest were traveling together, I thought the 
report was too good to be true. You cannot imagine what 
a splendid impression it has made on all classes, irre- 
spective of their religious beliefs. It is a lesson of tolerance 
that was much needed, and is sure to be productive of 
untold good." 

But the one who expressed his pleasure in the most 
striking manner was the venerable bishop of Montevideo. 
After inquiring about our country and our projected jour- 
ney into the wilds of Brazil, he declared with touching 
emphasis, "El viaje de Ustedes es el viajede Bios" — The 
journey of you two is God's journey. This was almost a 
paraphrase of the words of a prominent diplomat in Rio 
de Janeiro who, when he was informed of our plans, ex- 
pressed his unfeigned gratification and concluded with the 
words: "Dios esta sobre Ustedes" — God is above you. 
"You are doing His work. He will have you in His keep- 
ing. ' ' 



CHAPTER VIII 

SANTA MAEIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

Our first view of the capital of Argentina was from the 
deck of a trim cruiser which the Uruguayan government 
had put at our disposition for crossing the broad estuary 
of the Parana and the Uruguay, known as the Rio de la 
Plata, that separates Montevideo from Buenos Aires. 1 As 

1 Buenos Aires was founded in 1535 by Pedro de Mendoza, "who gave it 
the name of Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires, in honor of Nuestra Senora de 
los Buenos Aires — the patroness of Spanish mariners — towards whom the sea- 
faring men of Andalusia always manifested a special devotion. Before em- 
barking from San Lucar for the New World they always visited the image 
of Nuestra Senora de los Buenos Aires in Seville — an image which was then 
an object of particular veneration — to implore the protection of their pat- 
roness and beg of her the favor of fair winds during their long voyage across 
the ocean. This image is now in the palace of San Telmo, in Seville, where 
it is carefully preserved as an object of great historic interest. 

It is frequently asserted that the name of Buenos Aires was due to 
Sancho Garcia, a brother-in-law of Mendoza, who, on landing where the 
capital of Argentina now stands, exclaimed, ' ' Que buenos aires son los de 
este pais" — what good air is in this country! But this fancied origin of the 
city's name is too puerile and ridiculous to deserve serious notice. 

Owing to the hostilities of the Indians, the city founded by Mendoza had 
to be abandoned for nearly a half a century. Its definitive foundation dates* 
from June 11, 1580. As this day fell on Trinity Sunday, Juan de Garay, 
the second founder of the city, gave it the name of Giudad de la Santisima 
Trinidad y Puerto de Santa Maria de Buenos Aires. The formalities ob- 
served in its foundation were solemn and impressive. After having named the 
alcaldes and echevins, Gray and his sixty-three companions proceeded to 
what was to be the public square of the city and aided in the erection of 
what was to be a gibbet of public justice. Before it they raised the cross 
and the royal standard. They then brandished their swords and challenged 
anyone to contest their rights to the territory on which they stood, and, 
touching the gibbet with their swords, they took formal possession of the land 
in the name of the King of Spain, Philip II. A report of these proceedings 
was then drawn up by Pedro de Peres, the public notary, and a copy of it was 

146 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

we approached the harbor we descried a dark band on the 
horizon which we knew to be land. Soon afterwards, we 
were able to see some of the larger buildings of the city, 
and then gradually the broken sky-line of the great me- 
tropolis. There was nothing entrancing about this first 
view of Argentina's capital like that which so captivated 
us when we entered the magnificent harbor of Rio de 
Janeiro. There was nothing like the Bay of Guanabara with 
its hundred verdant isles and islets; no amphitheater of 
cloud-piercing mountains like that which encircles the queen 
city of Brazil. There was not even a natural harbor of any 
kind. The greatest city of South America is situated on a 
low, flat plain only a few feet above the sea, and the harbor, 
as now seen, is entirely artificial and represents the ex- 
penditure of countless millions of dollars. Only by the 
continuous action of numerous powerful dredges can the 
port be kept deep enough for large ocean liners, and can 
the channels leading to it from the ocean be kept free of 
the sand and silt brought from the interior of the continent 
by those colossal waterways — the Parana and the Uruguay. 
As seen from the tawny estuary of the Rio de la Plata, 
Buenos Aires is not unlike Chicago as viewed from Lake 
Michigan. One can see but little of it, except the part 
adjoining the immense docks which, although but recently 
constructed, rival those of Liverpool and Antwerp. There 
is not even a hillock in sight — nothing to indicate that one 
'part of the city is even a foot higher than another. Nor 
is there anything in the metropolis itself, as viewed from 
the steamer's deck, to intimate that we are approaching 
the third largest city in the Western Hemisphere and the 

forwarded to Spain, while the origmal was preserved in the archives of the 
newly-founded city. 

The name given to the city by Juan de Garay was subsequently changed 
by the King of Spain into La Ciudad de la Trinidad de Buenos Aires, but, 
for a long time past, it has been known simply as Buenos Aires. In southern 
South America it is now usually designated by English-speaking people as 
B. A, 

147 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

second largest Latin city in the world. And yet, after 
New York and Chicago, Buenos Aires is the most populous 
city in the New World, and, among Latin cities, it is sur- 
passed only by Paris. It covers an area more than twice 
that of Paris, three times that of Berlin, and four times 
that of Vienna. 

But one need not wait until one enters the city proper 
to realize that Buenos Aires is, of a truth, one of the 
world's great centers of population and commerce. The 
immense number of merchantmen from all parts of the 
globe show at a glance both the magnitude of this famous 
emporium and the vast amount of its imports and exports. 
Flags of all nations are seen flying from the masts of 
sailers and steamers of all sizes, from the small schooners 
of Norway and Puget Sound to the splendid ocean gray- 
hounds from Genoa and Hamburg and Liverpool. On our 
port and starboard quarters we see deep-laden vessels 
from Europe and Asia and the United States that have 
just completed their long voyage, and, as we draw nearer 
the city, we pass noble argosies of many nations bound 
for the far-off marts of commerce beyond the Atlantic and 
the Pacific. 

"While still some miles out in the harbor, we saw directly 
ahead of us a number of vessels approaching us, gaily 
decked with bunting and flying the banners of Argentina 
and the United States. They were crowded with people 
waving handkerchiefs and small flags. Their voices, how-' 
ever, were drowned by the music of several bands. They 
were a delegation of Argentines and people from the United 
States who had come to greet us and bid us welcome to 
the great metropolis of the Rio de la Plata. Many of 
them, as was evidenced by their college yells, were students 
from various American colleges. 

"When you reach Buenos Aires, you will find a quarter 
of a million people on the streets to welcome you to Argen- 
tina. " These words were addressed to me by a promi- 

148 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

nent Argentine just before we left New York, after he had 
told me of the welcome he was sure our party would receive 
on our arrival in his country. We had no way of esti- 
mating the throngs that met us at the landing and filled the 
streets through which we passed. There may have been 
a quarter of a million, and there may have been more. I 
have rarely seen anywhere such a sea of faces, and nowhere 
have I ever been a participant in a welcome that was more 
cordial, or was voiced by more people at one and the same 
time. 

We had no sooner set foot on Argentine soil than we 
found ourselves in the hands of hospitable hosts and gen- 
erous friends whose only thought seemed to be our pleas- 
ure and comfort. Eeceptions and entertainments of all 
kinds had already been arranged for our party and every 
opportunity was given us of seeing the people and study- 
ing their wonderful achievements in every sphere of effort. 

Buenos Aires is not only the largest city in South Amer- 
ica, but it also has a more modern aspect than the capitals 
of the other republics of the Southern Continent. Its gen- 
eral appearance and atmosphere are quite unlike those of 
Bogota, Quito and Lima, There is about it little of that 
glamour of romance that so distinguishes the capitals of 
Quesada and Belalcazar and Pizarro. This is not because 
Buenos Aires is younger than the three cities named, for 
it was founded by Mendoza in the same year as Lima and 
three years before Bogota. Nor is it because the explorers 
and conquerors of the La Plata region were lacking in 
ability and achievement. No one would affirm that of men 
who contributed so much to the discovery and colonization 
of this part of the world as did Sebastian Cabot, Juan 
Diaz de Solis, Cabeza de Vaca, Irala, Ayolas and Mendoza. 
But their deeds, great as they undoubtedly were, have never 
appealed so strongly to the imagination as the more bril- 
liant achievements of the famous conquerors of the Incas 
and the Muiscas. 

149 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Furthermore, Buenos Aires is almost entirely devoid 
of that peculiar charm of antiquity that so delights the 
visitor in Quito and Bogota. In the latter one can easily 
imagine oneself living in the Spain of Charles V, or 
Philip II. But in Argentina's great and enterprising 
capital everything is suggestive of the energy and the rush 
of the twentieth century. In certain of the business streets 
there is all the feverish activity of Wall Street in New 
York and all the hurry and bustle of the Board of Trade 
district in Chicago. Every man one meets is preoccupied 
with business and the pursuit of wealth. There is here 
nothing of that dolce far niente which is so marked a char- 
acteristic of many other Latin- American cities; none of 
that disposition to procrastinate, which is so well expressed 
by the word maiiana — never do today what can be done 
tomorrow. 

One of the first things in Buenos Aires to arrest the 
attention of the visitor is the extremely narrow streets in 
the colonial quarter. Here the thoroughfares are little 
more than thirty feet wide, including the sidewalks whose 
width, on either side, barely exceeds three feet. It seems 
strange that the founders of the city should have been 
so sparing of space when they had available an unlimited 
amount of unoccupied land. One reason assigned for their 
so doing was to secure shade in the streets during the 
hot season. Juan de Garay, who laid out the city in 1583, 
certainly did not in his plan of it exhibit the sagacity and 
foresight of his illustrious compatriot, Francisco Pizarro, 
who gave to the city of Lima, of which he was the founder, 
the broad streets and avenues which so enhance its 
natural beauty. It is but proper, however, to observe 
that the thoroughfares in the modern part of Buenos Aires 
have all the breadth one could desire. Moreover, arrange- 
ments have been made for widening the older streets, and 
the time is not far distant when locomotion in them will 
be as easy as it is now difficult. 

150 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

The two most interesting thoroughfares in the colonial 
quarter are the Calle Florida and the Avenida de Mayo. 
The first is the headquarters for jewelry and the latest 
fashions in feminine attire. It is to Buenos Aires what 
Rua do Ouvidor is to Eio de Janeiro and what the Eue de 
la Paix is to Paris. 

Avenida de Mayo is the most imposing avenue in the 
metropolis and is ranked by the natives among the most 
beautiful streets in the world. In many respects, it resem- 
bles one of the grand boulevards of the French capital. 
Along this broad and beautiful thoroughfare are found 
some of the largest and most superb edifices in the capital. 
Among these are the Cathedral, the Casa Rosada — Red 
House — which is the official residence of the President of 
the Republic, and the House of Congress which, on account 
of the vast amount of money which has been expended on 
it, is known as Casa Dorada — Gilded House. But, as some 
compensation for the enormous cost of this building, the 
people of Buenos Aires will have the satisfaction of know- 
ing, when it is completed, that they have one of the most 
grandiose legislative structures in the Western Hemi- 
sphere. 

There are numerous plazas that are worthy of a visit. 
Many of these have been laid out under the direction of 
M. Thays, a distinguished landscape artist from France. 
They are adorned with flower-beds, shrubs, trees and 
statues, some of which have considerable artistic merit. 
But the most unique statue in the city is that of Falucho. 
It is remarkable for being, probably, the only monument 
of the kind erected by white men to the memory of a Negro. 
Falucho was a colored soldier, who was shot by the Span- 
iards for refusing, during the War of Independence, to 
mount guard over the flag against winch he had so often 
fought. 

But by far the most notable exhibition of statuary and 
monuments is found in the famous cemetery of La Recoleta. 

151 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

This is to Buenos Aires what Pere Lacbaise is to Paris. 
Here repose the remains of the most distinguished men 
and women of Argentina. There are here many exquisite 
works of art in marble, granite and bronze — not a few of 
which are the productions of the most eminent sculptors 
of France and Italy. And, as in the cemeteries of all Latin 
countries, there are here many private mortuary chapels 
of the most delicate workmanship. When one contemplates 
the countless works of art in this silent city of the dead, 
and wanders among the carefully tended flowers and shrubs 
that grow in rare profusion; when one observes on every 
hand the touching evidences of loving hearts in keeping 
green, in this beautiful God's acre, the precious memory 
of the dear departed, there is no material prompting to 
sadness or melancholy. 

In a side-chapel of the Cathedral in a stately sepulchral 
monument, like that of Napoleon in Les Invalides, are 
preserved the treasured remains of the illustrious Argen- 
tine general, San Martin. In view of his splendid achieve- 
ments during the War of Independence, the people of Ar- 
gentina love to call him the Washington of South America, 
a title which the inhabitants of Venezuela have long claimed 
for Bolivar. A careful and unbiased student of the lives 
of the two men will, I think, be inclined to award the palm 
to San Martin. For, as a general and a statesman, he was 
certainly not inferior to Bolivar, while as a man he was, 
in every way, his superior. San Martin's glory increases 
with the passing years, and from present indications the 
time is not far distant when the great majority of the peo- 
ple of South America will agree with the Argentines in 
proclaiming the liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru as 
the most eminent warrior that the long struggle against 
Spain produced, and in regarding him, as do the Argen- 
tines, as the one who deserves, above all others, the epithet 
of "The Washington of South America." 

As an evidence of his admiration for San Martin, both 

152 



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& -3iufl 


: ■;■-.. .... 


.'Sjfl 




jKa ' s9tjH 




"•** ^» * < fl| 







Cathedral. Buenos Aires. 




Tomb of San Martin in the Cathedral. Buenos Aires. 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

as a soldier and as a patriot, Colonel Roosevelt placed 
an appropriate wreath on the tomb of the hero. He was 
met at the door of the sacred edifice by the accomplished 
vicar-general, Monsignor Duprat — the archbishop was then 
in Rome — and a number of the cathedral clergy who 
escorted him to the tomb of the great liberator. Colonel 
Roosevelt did many things which greatly pleased the people 
of Argentine, during his visit to their country, but he did 
nothing which so touched their hearts as this tribute of 
his to the memory of their illustrious countryman. 

There are many recreation grounds in Buenos Aires, 
but the one which I found most attractive was the beautiful 
Park of Palermo. It embraces nearly a thousand acres 
and, thanks to the genius of M. Thays, who is called the 
Argentine Le Notre, it has already become one of the most 
remarkable parks in the world. Its lakes, drives, green- 
swards, buildings, statues, banks of flowers and shrubs, 
groves of trees large and small, make it the rival of the 
celebrated Bois de Boulogne. In many respects, indeed, 
it is superior to the great French park. Its floral display 
is more brilliant, its plant life is more exuberant, and the 
number of species of shrubs and trees is far greater. In 
this respect it is surpassed only by the marvelous vegetable 
growths in the parks and gardens of Rio de Janeiro. 

This park is the favorite pleasaunce of the Portenos, 1 
as the people of Buenos Aires are called. Here, during 
two or three hours in the evening, one will find a continu- 
ous procession of gorgeous victorias and motor-cars filled 
with the wealth and fashion of Argentina. Each vehicle 
is a moving picture of superbly gowned women and ex- 
quisitely dressed children. Not even on the Chanips- 

1 This name, strictly speaking, designates those who have been born in 
Buenos Aires. They are called Portenos from the old name of the city, Puerto 
de Buenos Aires. The epithet signifies people of the Port, in contradistinction 
to those inhabiting the Campo — or country districts. Those inhabiting the 
western part of the Republic are sometimes called Arribenos, or, as we should 
say, people ' ' out West ' ' or " Westerners. ' ' 

153 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

iElysees will one witness a more splendid exhibition of the 
latest Parisian fashions than in this spot during the hours 
of the daily drive. Women, young and old, come here to 
see and be seen; to admire and be admired. While in 
their carriages and motors, scarcely a word is spoken. 
All are intent on watching the gorgeous procession, saluting 
passing friends with a graceful wave of the hand and in 
scrutinizing the passers-by. 

I do not think I ever saw anywhere so many beautiful 
children as in the Park of Palermo. By a special excep- 
tion, they are free to play on the carefully kept lawns and 
wander among the flowers at their sweet wills. More atten- 
tion seems to be given to their apparel by their fond 
mammas than even to that of their elder sisters, and that 
is saying a great deal. The variety and combination of 
colors of their attire are always in perfect taste and har- 
monize admirably with those of Flora's exquisite children 
round about them. At times, they seemed to me like living 
flowers flitting among those that were rooted to Mother 
Earth, or like the beautiful fairies of childhood's fancy. 

And they seemed to be — crowds of them — everywhere. 
And all of them were beautiful and all animated pictures 
of buoyant life and happiness. They were evidence con- 
clusive that race-suicide is not one of the crying disorders 
of Argentina. So far is this from being the case that fa- 
thers and mothers here glory in large families and regard 
children as special blessings of God. One frequently finds 
proud mothers of twelve and fifteen strong, bright and 
healthy children. Some years ago, a venerable lady of 
ninety-six years died leaving behind her no fewer than two 
hundred and ninety-six descendants. This, I was assured by 
a prominent Argentine statesman, is by no means an excep- 
tional case. Many similar large families are to be found 
in Argentina. 

And what is no less remarkable is the strong affection 
that all the members of these large families have for one 

154 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

another, and especially for their parents. They try, 
wherever possible, to live near one another so that they 
may exchange daily visits. In some parts of the country 
the mode of life is almost patriarchal, for the children, 
even after they are married, continue to live with their 
parents, who seem to be as much attached to their grand- 
children and great-grandchildren as to their own sons and 
daughters. For this reason it is no uncommon thing to see 
thirty or forty members of the same family gather about 
the table for dinner where there is sure to be a liberal 
supply of the national dish, puchero. 1 Such a home is no 
longer a single household, but a huge phalanstery. 

Almost a part of the Palermo Park are the botanic and 
zoological gardens. Both are so rich in floral and fauna! 
life that one can never tire studying their treasures. 

The botanic garden of Buenos Aires is one of the richest 
and most complete in the world. It does not, it is true, 
exhibit the marvelous luxuriance of the botanic garden of 
Rio de Janeiro, but it possesses, probably, for the man of 
science greater scientific value. For here are gathered to- 
gether not only plants and trees from all parts of South 
America, but from all parts of the world. One finds here 
the graceful jacaranda with its lovely clusters of purple 
flowers — a tree that adorns many of the streets and parks 
of Argentina; the tipa, with its wealth of yellow bloom; 
the ceiba, with its brilliant drapery of red and scarlet blos- 
soms; the quebracho, so heavy and hard and so rich in 
tannin. Then there are countless other trees collected from 
all parts of the Republic from the Gran Chaco to Patagonia 
— trees yielding valuable resins and dyes and medicines 
and perfumes. Not the least remarkable of these forest 
growths is the Palo Santo which is the source of a valuable 
essential oil which, among other uses to which it is put, 
is employed in Bulgaria in the production of counterfeit 
attar of roses. Nor must I omit to mention the curious 

1 A dish composed of boiled meat and vegetables. 

155 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

flores del aire — air plants — a species of Tillandsia that is 
found in many parts of the country. These epiphytes are fre- 
quently found growing on the dead branches of trees, and 
require so little nourishment, except what they derive from 
the atmosphere, that they are said to thrive when attached 
to no other support than a telegraph wire. It would require 
a volume to tell of the wonderful collection of plants and 
trees found in this large and carefully planned garden. 
But it required a Frenchman, M. Thays, to make known 
to the Argentines the extraordinary floral wealth of their 
immense country. For, before he entered upon his duties 
here, the richness and the variety of the flora of Argen- 
tina were absolutely unknown. 

The zoological garden is, after Palermo Park, the most 
popular resort of the city — especially for young folks. One 
will always find crowds of them here standing before the 
cages or around the inclosures of the countless birds and 
mammals which are here assembled. This splendid aggre- 
gation of animals, from all parts of the world, is under 
the supervision of an Italian, named Onelli. He is never 
happier than when with his pets. He knows them all, and 
they know him. Even those that naturally should be the 
shyest and the most savage are his friends and welcome 
his approach. But Mr. Onelli is more than a friend and 
protector of the animals intrusted to his care. Like Herr 
Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, he has succeeded in producing, by 
crossing, certain hybrids that men of science consider of 
special interest and value. 

In the aristocratic residential districts of Buenos Aires, 
one cannot help being deeply impressed by the sumptuous- 
ness of the homes of the Argentine millionaires. Here one 
will find imposing edifices of every conceivable style of 
architecture — from the rococo of Louis Quinze to the more 
classic cinque-cento. Most of the buildings, however, are 
modeled after the Italian or French Renaissance and in 
passing along such thoroughfares as the Avenida Alvear, 

156 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

or the Avenida Sarmiento, one can easily fancy oneself in 
the most fashionable quarter of Milan or Paris. 

Buenos Aires, like Washington, is a city of shade trees. 
They are found everywhere in the greatest profusion — 
along streets and avenues, in private gardens as well as 
in public parks and public plazas. Berlin prides itself on 
the number of the trees that adorn its thoroughfares and 
its celebrated Tiergarten, but the Argentine capital pos- 
sesses more than three times as many trees as the great 
German metropolis, and the number is rapidly increas- 
ing. 

If the founders of Buenos Aires had only anticipated 
the action of their successors by giving it wide streets and 
an abundance of shade trees, as has been done in the neigh- 
boring city of La Plata, it would have resulted in a saving 
of untold millions of treasure, and would have contributed 
immensely not only to the beauty of the place, but also to 
the comfort and the pleasure of its inhabitants. But, if 
Buenos Aires continues for another generation or two to 
grow and improve as rapidly as it has during the last third 
of a century, the present narrow streets in the business 
quarter will all be widened and will be as well supplied 
with shade trees as any part of the city. 

Although there are many churches, large and small, in 
Buenos Aires, none of them is remarkable as a specimen 
of architecture. The Church of the Holy Cross — locally 
known as "the Irish Church" — is a beautiful Gothic struc- 
ture recently erected for the benefit of the English-speaking 
Catholics of the city. It has a particular interest for 
Americans, for it was founded by one of their compatriots, 
the Beverend Father Pidelis, provincial of the Congrega- 
tion of the Passionists. He was for several years presi- 
dent of Hobart and Kenyon colleges in the United States 
and after his conversion to the Catholic Church he became 
distinguished as an author and a pulpit orator. He gradu- 
ated from Harvard with the younger Oliver Wendell 

157 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Holmes and served as an officer in the Second Massachu- 
setts Cavalry during the Civil War. Colonel Koosevelt, 
who was entertained by his fellow-alumnus in the mon- 
astery of the Passionists, writes of him: "With his tall, 
erect figure and fighting face, it seemed to me I could still 
hear the clank of the cavalry saber as he walked. ' ' 1 For 
many years past, the sphere of this eminent churchman's 
activities has been in South America. He not only intro- 
duced his order into the Southern Continent, but he estab- 
lished numerous monasteries and built many churches and 
schools not only in Argentina, but also in Chile and Brazil 
as well. It is safe to say that no one man from our 
country has done more in our generation for the cause 
of religion and education in the Land of the Southern 
Cross than has this zealous and scholarly son of New Eng- 
land. 

In passing by the church of Santo Domingo, in front of 
which there is the splendid mausoleum of Belgrano, one 
of the great heroes of the War of Independence, one will 
notice how, in places, the walls of the sacred edifice were 
battered by artillery during the British invasion in 1808. 
In a church in another part of the city are four time-worn, 
dust-covered flags taken from the British by the Spanish 
defenders of Buenos Aires. The English had just taken 
Capetown in Africa from the Dutch and, flushed with vic- 
tory, they wished to secure a foothold in the southern part 
of South America. During their attack on Buenos Aires, 
a part of the British troops took possession of the church 
of Santo Domingo. But the Spanish guns soon compelled 
them to surrender, and the battered walls remain to tell the 
story of the invaders' repulse. Owing to the strange incom- 
petency of the chief officers in command of the army of 
invasion, the English were forced, after a few days ' fighting, 
to beat an ignominious retreat, and to abandon their ambi- 
tious project of making Argentina and Uruguay appanages 

1 The Outlook, March 28, 1914, p. 713. 

158 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

of tlie British Crown. 1 It is interesting to speculate what 
would now be the present condition of this part of South 
America had the English been as successful in conquest in 
the La Plata region as they were in South Africa. 

The magnificent public and private buildings of Buenos 
Aires, its splendid parks and gardens, its mammoth stores 
and grain elevators, its sumptuous railway stations and 
colossal dock-system are indications of wealth, prosperity 
and progress, but they reveal but imperfectly the ideals 
and aspirations of its inhabitants. To understand these, 
one must visit some of their numerous and perfectly 
equipped charitable and educational institutions. These 
are the pride of every true Argentine and are, more than 
anything else, an indication of the real character of the 
people. They exhibit the promise and the potency of the 
republic's future as does nothing else, and show the spirit 
of solidarity and cooperation which are daily becoming 
more marked characteristics of the dominating element of 
the Argentine nation. 

It is not my purpose to describe any of the very large 
number of public institutions of learning. Many long chap- 
ters would be required to do them even partial justice. 
Suffice it to say that they are in every way worthy of the 
great and enterprising capital of which they are such con- 
spicuous ornaments. Nothing is wanting. From the pri- 
mary schools to the university, everything — buildings, 
equipment, sanitary arrangements — is the best that money 
can buy or science suggest. The same may be said of the 
colleges of law and medicine; the academies of art and 

1 A young officer on the English staff, writing of the ignoble defeat of his 
countrymen, declares : "It appears to me one of the most severe blows that 
England has ever received. ' ' The British sought some consolation for their 
humiliating discomfiture in the fact that their blundering commander — General 
Whitelock — was courtmartialed. The tribunal which tried him adjudged that 
he "be cashiered and declared totally unfit and unworthy to serve his Majesty 
in any military capacity whatever." "A Memoir of the Services of Sir Sam- 
uel Ford Whittingham, " p. 23. London, 1868. 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

music ; the technical and trade schools ; the chemical, elec- 
trical, biological and bacteriological laboratories. Many 
of these edifices are palatial in design and finish, and equal 
to the best of similar institutions in the United States or 
Europe. 

The numerous schools and colleges conducted by vari- 
ous religious orders likewise deserve unstinted praise. It 
was my privilege to visit many of them, and I was every- 
where deeply impressed by the vast range of the work 
accomplished in them and the thoroughness of the instruc- 
tion given in every department. They are patronized by 
the best families of the city, and the most prominent men 
and women in Argentina, when questioned as to where 
they received their education, will promptly reply: "In 
the College of the Padres," or, "In the Convent." 

Nor shall I dilate on the splendid institutions for the 
poor, the sick, and the unfortunate. There are scores of 
them — some under governmental and municipal auspices, 
others conducted by religious congregations which are par- 
ticularly devoted to works of charity. The buildings are 
especially constructed for the purposes for which they 
are used and in accordance with the strictest demands of 
hygienic principles. They are spacious, well lighted, well 
ventilated, and are models of cleanliness and comfort un- 
surpassed by any similar institutions elsewhere. 

The educational and charitable organizations that I 
wish specially to speak of are those that are in some re- 
spects peculiar to Buenos Aires. They are all conducted 
by women and exhibit a degree of efficiency that is really 
remarkable. They show, probably better than anything 
else, what the Argentine women are capable of accomplish- 
ing as administrators and what success they can achieve, 
even in the most difficult enterprises, when their sympa- 
thies are enlisted and when they are given a free hand 
to act according to their best judgment. 

I shall confine myself to only two of these organiza- 

160 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

tions. One of them is known as La Sociedad de Beneficencia 
and the other as Obra Conservacion de la Fe. 

The first organization had its origin in 1823, and was 
dne to the initiative of Eivadavia, who, according to the 
historian Mitre, "stands in America second only to Wash- 
ington as the representative statesman of a free people." 
In nothing, probably, did he more clearly exhibit his per- 
spicacity as a statesman and a man of affairs than in his 
establishment of La Sociedad de Beneficencia. For, from 
humble beginnings, it has become one of the most important 
and best managed of the philanthropic institutions of 
South America. 

When Eivadavia was confronted with the problem of 
relieving the sufferings of the sick and the helpless of 
Buenos Aires, he had the happy inspiration to invoke the 
active cooperation of his countrywomen in the undertaking 
on the success of which his heart was set. Time has demon- 
strated the wisdom of his action, for no movement inaugu- 
rated by the far-seeing statesman has contributed more to 
the relief of the sick and the indigent. It is now nearly a 
century since La Sociedad de Beneficencia was founded, 
and its history has ever been one of uninterrupted prog- 
ress and noblest Christian charity. It is composed of sixty 
women chosen from the leading families of Buenos Aires. 
To them the Government confides to a great extent the care 
of the poor and suffering. Most of these women are the 
mothers of grown-up children, or widows who are free to 
consecrate their leisure time to the victims of disease and 
misfortune. 

The annual revenue of this society now amounts to more 
than four million dollars. The control of this large sum 
is in the hands of a committee of twelve elected by the 
members of the society. In the management of the immense 
revenues which come to it from all quarters, the society 
has exhibited evidence of capacity for administration that 
is truly remarkable. 

161 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

But in spite of the success of these devoted women as 
financiers, their unquestioned business integrity, and their 
noble disinterestedness in the greatest of the city's chari- 
ties, certain representatives of the sterner sex have recently 
begun an agitation whose object is to get control of the rap- 
idly increasing funds of the society. Their contention is 
that men who have greater experience in business and 
finance would be more competent than women to administer 
the affairs of the society. 

"Why," they ask, "should women, whom the law treats 
as minors when there is question of the administration 
of their own property, be permitted to dispose of the mil- 
lions which are intrusted to the society by the public?" 

To this question the members of the association simply 
reply: "Why should women, who have for nearly a hun- 
dred years given such proofs of business acumen, financial 
ability, honest and successful administration, be declared 
by the law to be minors in the matter of the administration 
of their personal possessions?" 

The real reason, it is asserted, why the men in question 
desire a change in the trustees of the funds of this great 
and growing organization is not the incapacity of the 
women — for they have proved their ability in a thousand 
ways during three generations of splendid achievement — 
but rather the honor and prestige which attach to the ad- 
ministration of the funds of a society which has become 
of nation-wide importance and magnitude. 

The Obra Conservacion de la Fe, like La Sociedad de 
Beneficencia, also looks after the sick. But the special 
object of its activity is the instruction of the children of 
the poor. There are nearly a score of schools under the 
direction of this society and they are attended by thou- 
sands of children. The buildings are specially constructed 
for the purpose in view and are models in every way. Edu- 
cation is entirely gratuitous and the teachers are of the 
best. I was struck by the perfect cleanliness and the admi- 

162 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

rable hygienic conditions everywhere prevalent. But that 
which impressed me most of all was the rare enthusiasm 
of everyone engaged in this noble charity. Teachers, as 
well as those charged with the administration of the mate- 
rial and financial affairs of the association, had their heart 
and soul in their work, as if it was their only interest in 
life. 

In addition to the regular courses of instruction given 
in the public schools, the Obra Conservacion de la Fe has 
special classes in domestic economy for the girls. They 
have well-equipped ironing-rooms and sewing-rooms, in 
which all the machines are operated by electricity and 
in which the young Portenas learn how to design, cut and 
make garments of all kinds. The remarkable thing about 
this department is that the pupils are not only taught free 
of charge, but that they are also remunerated for their 
work. They thus learn a useful trade and receive good 
wages at the same time. The society reserves only one- 
fifth of the profits accruing from the girls' work. This 
is to cover a part of the actual operating expenses of the 
school. The remainder goes to the girls. They are not 
long in the school until their income amounts to nearly 
a dollar a day. For girls whose parents are among the 
poorest of the poor, this source of income is a godsend. 
When they have finished their course of instruction in do- 
mestic science, they receive a diploma which is regarded as 
the best kind of recommendation by those needing their 
services. Thanks to the training received in these schools, 
a large and ever-increasing number of poor girls are 
annually provided with the means of earning an honest 
livelihood. 

But the society does not stop at teaching the ordinary 
branches of an education and the various kinds of useful 
trades. Over and above this, it devotes special attention to 
the religious instruction and moral training of its pupils. 
For the prime object of the Obra Conservacion de la Fe is 

163 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

to turn out of its schools students who will be not only good 
citizens, but also intelligent and loyal adherents of the 
Church of their fathers. In this respect, the devoted women 
who are at the head of this excellent organization — and they 
count among their number representatives of the oldest 
and best families of the city — have been singularly suc- 
cessful. For they can now behold in all parts of the great 
capital the blessed fruits of their untiring exertions, zeal 
and superabundant charity for those little ones who are 
so dear to the heart of their Divine Master. 

It may be observed here in passing that, during the 
last generation, Argentina has spent more per capita in 
the education of her children than any country in the world, 
except Australia. 

Parisians are wont to declare that Paris is France. 
One can likewise affirm, and with more truth, that Buenos 
Aires is Argentina. It is practically the clearing-house 
for the business of the entire Republic. It is true that Ro- 
sario and Bahia Blanca. — "The Liverpool of the South" — 
are rapidly becoming important business centers for for- 
eign commerce, but Buenos Aires is still the principal point 
of contact with North America and Europe. This is evi- 
denced by the vast number of merchantmen always found 
along the miles of dockage loading the products of the 
Pampa for the markets of the Old and the New World, or 
delivering commodities of every kind from all the ports 
of the globe. And, although nearly fifty million dollars 
have been spent within recent years on the extension and J 
improvement of the immense dock-system, it is still inade- J 
quate to meet the rapidly increasing demands of commerce. 

No city in the world, not even Chicago, has exhibited 
a more rapid growth than Buenos Aires. In 1869 it counted \ { 
only one hundred and seventy-seven thousand inhabitants. |! 
Now its population is rapidly approaching two millions, p 
In 1870 sanitation was practically unknown. There were h 
no sewers, no waterworks, no paved streets. Water was 

164 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

supplied by cisterns and street illumination was of the 
most primitive kind. The houses of bricks, or adobe, were 
only one story high, as were most of the buildings of the 
colonial period. When it rained, the streets were im- 
passable and the city was so isolated from the surrounding 
country that it was impossible to obtain fresh meat or vege- 
tables. Florida, which is now the rendezvous of wealth 
and fashion, was then little more than a cloacal channel, 
like the Canal do Mangue of Eio de Janeiro, during the 
same period. The Plaza de Mayo, then near the landing- 
place of small craft, was the center of the city. 

All this is now changed. The streets and avenues are 
paved and asphalted. The water and sewer systems are 
admirable. The electric light is everywhere. And the sani- 
tation of the city is so carefully looked after that its annual 
mortality has been reduced to fifteen per thousand. And, 
although fabulous sums have already been spent on im- 
provements of this kind, the plans which have been adopted 
for the city's betterment call for the expenditure of nearly 
a hundred million dollars more. 

But Buenos Aires is not satisfied with being the second 
largest Latin city in the world and the third largest in 
the Western Hemisphere. It aspires to be the rival of 
Paris, New York, London. At present, its population is 
one-sixth that of the whole Bepublic, but it is daily increas- 
ing with vertiginous rapidity. Immigrants from all parts 
of Europe are pouring into it by tens of thousands every 
year. Streets are being widened and large buildings erected 
but a few years ago are razed to give place to more sumptu- 
ous structures, or to skyscrapers of steel and granite and 
marble. It has an excellent street-car system, but it has 
been found necessary to supplement this by underground 
railways, which are fully as good as the best in New York 
or Paris. It is now the order of the day that all public 
buildings must be equal, if not superior, to similar struc- 
tures in the world's greatest capitals. Hence the splendid 

165 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

specimens of neo-Corinthian architecture that so fre- 
quently delight the eye. And hence the magnificent schools, 
hospitals, museums, libraries, art galleries, government 
buildings which embody the best features and possess the 
best equipment that architectural and engineering genius 
can suggest. 

The celebrated Teatro Colon is a case in point. It is 
not only an imposing edifice, splendidly furnished and ar- 
tistically adorned, but it is also the largest opera house 
in the world. It will seat comfortably nearly twice as many 
as the great Opera in Paris. It was in this superb struc- 
ture that Colonel Eoosevelt gave his chief discourses before 
applauding thousands. It is here, too, that the most emi- 
nent lyric artists of Europe appear every season before 
the elite of Argentina's wealth and culture. 

But the Porteno is not satisfied to have the public build- 
ings unexcelled in size and beauty. His ambition extends 
to private edifices as well. I have already referred to 
the luxurious residences, of every style of architecture, 
of the merchant princes of Buenos Aires and of the mil- 
lionaire estancieros who spend a part of the year in the 
capital. I wish here to allude to the home of the Prensa — 
the most sumptuous newspaper building in existence. 
Neither Europe nor our own country has anything to ap- 
proach it in the richness of its appointments and in the 
provisions made for the comfort and improvement of the 
journal's employees. 

And when the visitor expresses his surprise at the ex- 
traordinary growth of the city during the last third of a 
century, the enthusiastic Argentine will exclaim: "Wait 
a few years longer and you will see here a metropolis 
that will be unsurpassed in wealth and magnificence. Our 
capital is yet in a state of formation. We are still tear- 
ing down and rebuilding; experimenting and trying to 
gauge the wants of the future. But in a few decades more 
Buenos Aires will acknowledge no superior anywhere." 

166 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

The Argentine entertains the same exalted ideas re- 
garding the future of his country as he does respecting 
his capital. He already sees it as the dominant element 
of a great confederation — the center of an immense Ee- 
public augmented by the peaceful accession of Uruguay, 
Chile and Paraguay. He contemplates it as the United 
States of South America, the friendly rival of the Great 
United States of the North — the two powers that are des- 
tined to control the commerce and dictate the peace of 
the world. 

It would be difficult to find in any country more natural 
pride, more undisguised chauvinism than in Argentina. 
It shows itself everywhere — in the schools, in social gather- 
ings, in political and military reunions. But it is particu- 
larly conspicuous on the twenty-fifth of May and other 
national holidays. In nothing, however, does it show itself 
more strikingly than in the patriotic catechism which all 
school children are required to learn by heart. The fol- 
lowing questions and answers from this catechism are an 
illustration of the patriotic spirit which is instilled into 
the minds of young Argentines from their earliest school 
days : 

' ' How do you consider yourself in relation to your com- 
patriots?" 

"I consider myself as bound to them by a sentiment 
which unites all." 

"What is it?" 

' ' The sentiment that the Argentine Eepublic is the best 
country in the world." 

"What are the duties of a good citizen?" 

"First of all, to love one's country." 

"More even than our parents?" 

"More than anything whatever." 

Further on, in response to a question of the teacher, 
the pupil replies : 

"In the veins of no human being does there flow more 

167 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

generous blood than in our own ; in the annals of the world 
the origin of no nationality is more resplendent with a 
more brilliant aureole than that which encircles the brow 
of the Argentine Republic. I am proud of my origin, of 
my race, of my country. ' ' 1 

The Argentine flag is found in every classroom, behind 
the teacher's chair. This is frequently saluted by the pu- 
pils, especially when the national anthem is sung, which 
is something of very frequent occurrence. When the name 
of San Martin, the hero of Argentine independence, is 
pronounced by the teacher, during class hours, both teach- 
ers and pupils must rise and, giving the military salute, 
must exclaim: "Viva la P atria!" With such frequent and 
such ardent professions of patriotism on the part of young 
and old, can one wonder that chauvinism of the most 
pronounced character pervades all classes in Argentina 
irrespective of the nationality of their forebears? 

Even Argentina's men of science seemed to have been 
carried away by a kind of chauvinism. For one of the 
most noted of them, Dr. Ameghino, announced, not many 
years ago, that the Garden of Eden was located at Monte 
Hermoso — between Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca — and 
that he had discovered there the remains of the father 
of the human race. The name given this Argentine Adam 
is Tetraprotliomo Argentinus, and those interested in read- 
ing a full account of their primeval ancestor will find it 
in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires. I fear, 
however, that the final verdict of the world of science re- 
specting these claims of Dr. Ameghino will be that they 
have but little more basis in fact than a legend of the com- 
mon people of Argentina who declare that our Lord's 
Crown of Thorns was made from the spines of the Es- 
pinillo de Corona — a species of acacia which grows in vari- 
ous parts of their country. 

1 Cf . " En Argentine de la Plata a la Cordilleres, ' ' p. 398, by M ? Julesi 
Huret. Paris, 1913. 

168 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

Nowhere, perhaps, not even in Chicago or New York, 
where one hears a babel of tongues, will one find a more 
cosmopolitan population than in Buenos Aires. Here there 
seem to be representatives from all the nations of the 
earth. Besides the thousands from Great Britain and the 
United States, there are Italians, Spaniards, Germans, 
Eussians, Poles, Hungarians, Belgians, French, Scandi- 
navians, Turks, Syrians, Armenians, Basques — all seek- 
ing homes and fortunes in this latest land of promise. 

The nation that has the largest representation here is 
Italy. There are, indeed, almost as many Italians in 
Buenos Aires as in Eome. They are found everywhere and 
in all occupations, from that of the bootblack on the street 
corner to that of the bank president and the legislator 
in the National Congress. Indeed, some of Argentina's 
most distinguished statesmen and most successful men of 
affairs have been of Italian birth or descent. The musical 
tongue of Dante and Tasso — la lingua toscana in bocca 
romana — is heard in every part of the city, and one has 
only to close one's eyes to fancy oneself in Florence or 
Eome. In certain quarters one hears more frequently the 
dialects of Sicily and Naples, Venice and Calabra. Every- 
where these children from sunny Italy are as numerous 
and as busy as ants in an ant-hill — the representatives of 
labor and thrift in an environment of colossal wealth and 
megalomania. 

Next to the Italians, in point of numbers, come the 
Spaniards — not those who have long lived in the country, 
but those who have arrived here within the last few dec- 
ades. There are myriads of them — sober, industrious, en- 
terprising people from all parts of the Peninsula — the 
hardy Galician, the wide-awake Catalonian, the patient 
Basque, the ardent Andalusian. One recognizes them by 
their peculiarities of language, as one distinguishes the 
various types of Italians by their striking differences of 
dialects. Like the Italians, the Spaniards readily assimi- 

169 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

late with the native-born population and their children are 
sure to be ardent and enthusiastic Argentines. 

The great majority of the Spaniards and Italians be- 
long to the laboring classes. The French, English and 
Germans, on the contrary, are conspicuous as merchants, 
bankers, capitalists. They have large interests in rail- 
roads and electric plants, and in all kinds of industrial en- 
terprises. Much of the "big business" of the country is 
in their hands or under their control. The investments and 
loans of France, England and Germany in Argentina 
aggregate considerably more than two billion dollars. It 
was the active cooperation of these three great nations that 
enabled Argentina to develop her marvelous natural re- 
sources and to reach the enviable place she now occupies 
in the world of commerce and industry. 

To see the people of Buenos Aires at their best, one 
must meet them in their homes and in those beautiful so- 
cial reunions which are so prominent a feature of Argen- 
tine society. Their home life is ideal. The devotion of 
parents to children and the affection of children for parents 
are admirable. For exhibitions of wealth and luxury, one 
goes to the Hippodrome or the Teatro Colon. I shall never 
forget the gorgeous scene I witnessed in the latter place 
at a grand banquet that was given in it after Colonel 
Roosevelt had finished his course of lectures on Progressive 
Democracy. Besides those seated at the table, six thou- 
sand people were assembled in the boxes, galleries, aisles 
and lobbies. Not even the first night of grand opera 
would have brought together so great a concourse. The 
elite of the city were present. The men were garbed in the 
latest fashion and seemed even finicky about the minutest 
details of their personal appearance. The toilettes of the 
women, young and old, were dreams of elegance and lux- 
ury. Everywhere were seen the latest creations of Worth, 
Doucet, Paquin and Redfern. The women of New York 
and Washington are said to be, after their sisters in Paris, 

170 



SANTA MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES 

the best-dressed women in the world. Those competent to 
judge claim this distinction for the women of Buenos Aires. 
Their taste is as exquisite as their sense of harmony in 
selecting fabrics and colors best adapted to enhance their 
personal charms is perfect. On the night in question, 
the toilettes and jewels represented fortunes. In the front 
of the tiers of boxes were young women in white, loaded 
with roses, and ablaze with diamonds. As seen from the 
stage, these circles of youthful, happy ninas Portenas, with 
delicate features and flashing eyes, recalled the mystic 
white rose described by Dante in the "Paradiso ,, : 

Le facce tutte avean di fiamma viva, 
E l'ali d'oro, e l'altro tanto, bianco, 
Che nulla neve a quel termine arriva. 
Quando scendean nel fior, di banco in banco 
Porgevan della pace e dell 'ardore, 
Ch' egli acquistavan. 1 

It must have been a scene like this that inspired the 
beautiful ode of the Argentine poet, Cruz Varela, on the 
"Bello Sexo de Buenos Aires." He pictures the city as 
proud of its charming daughters, and declares that it is 
impossible to choose among them, for they are all beauti- 
ful — todas son bellas. 

The banquet in the Teatro Colon was virtually the pub- 
lic farewell of Buenos Aires to the members of our party. 
It was a worthy crowning of all the kindness and courtesy 
shown us during our sojourn in this hospitable city. Every 
hour spent there was one of unalloyed delight. We had 
heard much about the greatness, the enterprise, the phe- 
nomenal growth of Buenos Aires; we had been regaled 

1 Faces had they of flame, and wings of gold ; 
The rest was whiter than the driven snow; 
And as they flitted down into the flower, 
From range to range, 
Whispered the peace and ardor which they wore. 

171 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

with long stories about its superb parks and avenues, its 
palatial homes, its sumptuous edifices devoted to educa- 
tion, art, science, philanthropy, religion. We had been 
told about the generosity and patriotic spirit of its men; 
of the charm of its women, of their nobility of character, 
of their purity of life, of their devotion to their family, 
of the beauty of their children, of their deeply religious 
nature, of their miracles of charity in behalf of afflicted 
humanity, but we had to confess, after our all too brief 
visit among them, that we had not heard half the truth 
about the glories of this wonderful metropolis, or of the 
surpassing excellency of its inhabitants. 

And when the time came to bid farewell to those who 
had treated us with all the affection of friends and broth- 
ers, we felt again the renewal of the acute pang of parting 
that we had already so frequently experienced during the 
course of our eventful journey. I, for one, felt constrained 
to give expression to my feelings by quoting from the 
"Adios" of the young Argentine poet, Florencio Balcarce, 
who was fated to die prematurely far from the land of his 
birth : 

Adios ! Buenos Aires ; amigos, adios ! 

Adios! Buenos Aires; mil veces y mil. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

Before leaving the United States, Colonel Roosevelt and 
I determined that we should see as much of the great 
Argentine Republic as possible. We wished to study it 
and its people in the north and the south, in the east and 
in the west. For we felt that we could not, by taking the 
usual direct route from Buenos Aires to Santiago, do jus- 
tice to a country whose area is more than a third of that 
of the continental United States. For this reason, when 
we were ready to start for Chile, we went thither, accord- 
ing to our itinerary, by way of Rosario, Tucuman, Cor- 
doba and Mendoza. This afforded us an opportunity not 
only of seeing enterprising modern cities, but also of study- 
ing some of those whose foundation dates back to the time 
of the Conquistadores — cities, too, which have played an 
important part in the history of the Republic. For a simi- 
lar reason, we chose a route but little traveled on our return 
from Santiago to Buenos Aires. This was by way of south- 
ern Chile, Lake Nahuelhuapi, the desert of Neuquen, and 
Bahia Blanca. By thus acting we were able to make ob- 
servations in all parts of the country from the Atlantic 
to the Andes, from the Gran Chaco to Patagonia. 

Our itinerary proved to be so satisfactory in every 
respect, that, if we had to make the same journey over 
again, we should not change it in any way whatever. 

We wished particularly to see as much as possible 
of the Argentine Pampa * — that immense plain which ex- 

1 Pampa is a Quichua word meaning a level, treeless plain or savanna. It 
has the same signification as the Spanish word llano, or the Eussian word 
steppe. Thus we speak of the steppes of Siberia, or the llanos of Colombia or 

173 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tends from the lowlands of the Parana to the foothills of 
the Andes, and from the morasses drained by the Bermejo 
on the north to the arid wastes bordering the Rio Negro 
on the south. It is this vast plain that constitutes the most 
striking feature of Argentina and which is, at the same 
time, the chief source of its vast wealth as well as the foun- 
dation of its future predominant position among the re- 
publics of South America. 

We saw exactly what we wished to see, and that, too, un- 
der the most favorable auspices. We were able to observe 
the Pampa, that "great ocean of land, throughout its en- 
tire extent. We were, likewise, able to note the differences 
of soil and climate in the various sections of this immense 
region; to investigate, on the spot, the divers industries 
which have been developed where the conditions were most 
favorable. And over and above all this, we had the sat- 
isfaction of knowing that we were traveling over historic 
ground — ground made famous by the achievements of the 
Conquistadores and by the patriots of South American 
independence. In visiting Tucuman and Cordoba we were 
following the old trade route between Peru and La Plata, 
and were brought into touch with the descendants of sub- 
jects of the old Inca Empire which extended from Quito 
to Santiago del Estero. And what was not the least inter- 
esting to all of us in this far-off northwest corner of Argen- 
tina — so long isolated from the outside world, although 
settled shortly after the conquest of Peru and Chile — was 
that we had an opportunity of familiarizing ourselves with 
the peculiar Spanish manners and customs of early colonial 
times, and of living in an atmosphere redolent of the heroic 
deeds of a storied past. 

No one can fail to be impressed by the aspect of the 
Pampa, It as flat and as monotonous as the ocean, and 

Venezuela. When referring to the great plain of Argentina, English writers 
generally use the plural of the word, but Spanish writers more correctly employ 
the singular. Hence they say the pampa, not the pampas, of Argentina. 

174 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

apparently as interminable. Nowhere is there even a hil- 
lock, or a rock, large or small. The only thing to relieve 
the all-pervading uniformity of the landscape, in the un- 
settled parts, is the gnarly, fantastic, ombu. tree — useless, 
except for the shade it affords — which looks as if it had 
been transplanted from the suicides' forest in Dante's 
Inferno, as sketched by Dore. To the poets of the Pampa 
this bizarre product of nature is to the vast plain in which 
it grows what the lighthouse is to the mariner — el faro de 
aquel mar. The Gauchos have woven many stories about 
this tree, and in most tales and legends about the plains 
it is sure to have a conspicuous place. This utter absence 
of trees is noted more particularly in the grassy, humid 
parts of the Pampa which have not yet been occupied by 
the herdsman or the agriculturist. In the arid plains of 
its western part one finds everywhere low, scrubby trees 
and thorny bushes resembling the mesquite shrubs of Mex- 
ico. The most abundant of these growths is the chanar, 
and, for this reason, this part of the Pampa is sometimes 
called the chanar steppe. 

This singular absence of arborescent vegetation in a soil 
so rich and productive as that of the eastern area of the 
Pampa has long been a great puzzle to men of science. 
Darwin surmised that it was due to the pampero or south- 
west wind, whose extreme violence made the growth of 
trees impossible. But this conjecture has been proved 
to be unfounded by the immense number of lofty eucalyp- 
tus trees everywhere visible and which seem to find here a 
more congenial soil than in their original habitat in Aus- 
tralia. Around nearly every estanciero 's home one will now 
find a monte — a grove of eucalyptus, paraiso and other 
trees which seem to flourish as well as in any other part of 
the continent. The mystery, then, veiling the absence of 
forest growths in these parts seems to be even more baffling 
than in the case of our prairies in the western United 
States. 

175 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

The native Pampean grasses usually grow in tufts, or 
tussocks, and some species of them attain a height of seven 
or eight feet. They are what the Spaniards call pastos 
duros — hard grasses — and, although they are good as flesh- 
formers, are not fattening. But these pastos duros have, 
in many sections of the country, been supplanted by the 
pastos tiernos — soft grasses — which were introduced from 
Spain by the early colonists. During recent years, rich 
grasses have likewise been introduced from England and 
other parts of the world. These, combined with alfalfa— 
which is also a recent introduction — and the propitious 
climate make the Argentine Pampa the best grazing coun- 
try in the world. 

One will see but few wild animals as he traverses the 
plains of Argentina. They have been decimated or exter- 
minated, as have been the bison, the wild turkey and the 
passenger pigeon in our own country. But some of those 
still found have a peculiar interest to the visitor from 
the United States, because they are entirely different from 
anything we have in our own country, and because, also, 
they are the .distant representatives of a fauna of the geo- 
logic past — a fauna that was extraordinary not only for 
the size and variety of many of its component types but 
also for their peculiarities of structure and bizarreness of 
form. 

Among the representatives of these age-old types is 
the armadillo. There are still several species in Argentina, 
but, to judge from the fossil remains occurring in all parts 
of the Pampa, the number of species of this order was 
formerly much greater than it is at present. The first one 
I saw on its native heath was a peludo, or hairy armadillo. 
To come suddenly upon this contemporary of the giant 
glyptodon — an animal which "Nature seems to have built 
for eternity" — was like getting a glimpse of the fauna of 
the Pleistocene. 

Another representative of an archaic group is the rhea, 

176 



THE AEGENTINE PAMPA 

or South American ostrich. Like the armadillo, which car- 
ries us back to a time when mammals of colossal size 
roamed the plains, so also the rhea transports us to a 
period when there were also giants among avians. The 
first time one of the members of our expedition tried to 
secure one of these majestic birds for our collection was 
in northern Patagonia. But the fleet rhea was too wary 
for him and soon put itself far beyond the range of the best 
aimed rifle. 

There is, probably, no country in the world so rich in 
fossils of giant animals as the Pampa of Argentina. They 
are found everywhere. Indeed, this part of the continent 
was the home par excellence of the megatherium, the toxo- 
don, the glyptodon, the mylodon, as our Far West was the 
favorite habitat of other strange monsters during the same 
period. 

There is no place where the fossil remains of these 
strange creatures can be seen to better advantage than in 
the noble museum of La Plata — the most notable institu- 
tion of the kind in South America, with the possible excep- 
tion of the Museo Nacional in Lima, Peru. This is par- 
ticularly remarkable for its collection of Incaic and pre- 
Incaic antiquities, and is comparable, in a measure, with 
the celebrated museum of Bulak, in Egypt. That of La 
Plata, while rich in anthropological specimens, is particu- 
larly interesting for its very complete series of fossil re- 
mains of the extraordinary forms of life which peopled 
the Pampa during the Tertiary and Quaternary epochs. 

Of all the specimens in the La Plata Museum, the one 
which interested me most was that of the mylodon. My 
interest was aroused not so much by the peculiar structure 
of this mammoth sloth as by the fact of its survival until 
a very recent date. Only a few years ago, Nordenskjold 
discovered, in a cave in southwestern Patagonia, a large 
piece of well-preserved skin, covered with greenish brown 
hair and small, bony knobs, which was recognized as the 

177 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

skin of the mylodon. There is reason to believe that this 
remarkable animal was still browsing in the forests of 
Patagonia as late as fifty years ago. Indeed, there are 
naturalists who contend that this giant edentate is still 
living in some of the caves of southern Chile. So strong 
was this conviction, as late as 1902, that an expedition 
started from England, whose chief object was to search 
for a living mylodon. And, although the expedition was 
unsuccessful in its quest, there are not wanting men of 
science who continue to maintain that a living mylodon 
will yet be found somewhere in the forest depths of south- 
ern Chile or Argentina. 

As I contemplated in the La Plata museum the fossil 
remains of the extraordinary fauna which inhabited the 
plains of Argentina during the recent periods of geological 
history, I saw, in fancy, the ponderous forms of divers 
megatheroids lumbering over the Pampa in search of food. 
I beheld giant, sloth-like quadrupeds, as large as elephants, 
pulling down the branches of trees and tearing up shrubs 
by their roots in order to feed on their leaves. I observed 
the giant megalonyx, with its enormous claws; the huge 
glyptodon, with its prodigious carapace ; the colossal toxo- 
don which, according to Darwin, was l ' one of the strangest 
animals ever discovered." And I noted many other species 
of these bulky forms of mammalian life whose nature and 
affinities are still a puzzle to men of science. 

But all at once they disappeared from imagination as 
they had, in the long ago, disappeared from the grass- 
covered Pampa. What was the cause of their extinction 1 ? 
Was it some wide-spread cataclysm, or prolonged drought, 
or a glacial climate? Or was it one of Nature's slow- acting 
checks, of which we are yet entirely ignorant? Many at- 
tempts have been made to explain this mystery, but so far 
none of them have proved satisfactory. Some of the spe- 
cies named seemed destined to perpetuate their kind for 
untold generations. The glyptodon, for instance, as has 

178 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

well been remarked, seems to have been built for eternity. 
Failing in an explanation of the utter extinction of the 
remarkable fauna which we have been considering, we can 
only declare with Darwin : ' ' Certainly no fact in the long 
history of the world is so startling as the wide and re- 
peated extermination of its inhabitants." 1 

I have said, in a preceding page, that it is the Pampa 
which, during ages long past, nourished so marvelous a 
fauna,, that is the source of the wealth and prosperity of 
Argentina. It is the Pampa that supplies the necessary 
pabulum for the countless flocks and herds which roam 
over its vast expanse. It is the Pampa with its rich, allu- 
vial soil that is now one of the principal sources of the 
world's food supply, as well as certain kinds of raw ma- 
terial of great commercial value. 

When the Spaniards first went to South America they 
found there none of the domestic animals that are now so 
numerous in every part of the continent. There were no 
horses, cattle, sheep, asses, mules, swine, goats, cats or 
dogs, nor any of our domestic fowls. There was no wheat, 
rye, oats, barley, rice, millet, or other cereals so common 
in Europe; no flax, lucerne, or sugar-cane; no oranges, 
lemons, olives, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, figs, or cof- 
fee — all now so familiar to us in the north. Nor were there 
any of those numerous vegetables which are everywhere 
cultivated in our fields and gardens and which contribute 
so much to our means of subsistence. But, with the ad- 
vent of the Conquistadores and the colonists from Spain, 
all this was changed. Now all the domestic animals, all 
the cereals, fruits and vegetables prized in the Old World 
are found in South America, and in no part of it in greater 
numbers and abundance, or of better quality than in the 
Pampa of Argentina. 

1 Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Coun- 
tries Visited during the Voyage of H. M. S. "Beagle" round the World. Chap. 
VIII. 

179 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Horses were introduced into the Plata region by Pedro 
de Mendoza, the founder of Buenos Aires. According to 
his capitulation with the Spanish Crown, he was required, 
among other things, to take with him to the country he was 
to colonize no fewer than a hundred horses. Many of these 
were for the use of his soldiers, but others were destined 
for breeding purposes. 1 

It was from these animals that sprang those countless 
thousands of horses which, a few decades later, covered the 
Pampa from the Paraguay in the north to the Eio Colorado 
in the south. There were everywhere "droves of wander- 
ing horses," writes the famous missionary Padre Dobriz- 
hoffer, "of which any person may catch as many as he likes, 
and make them his own property. Some horsemen, within 
a few days, bring home more than a thousand horses from 
the plain. ... A horse of this kind, of either sex, when 
brought from the country, and before it is accustomed to 
the saddle and bridle, is sometimes bought for ten or thir- 
teen cruitzers. The colts of the mares are given gratis to 
the purchasers. ' ' 2 

Padre Falkner, who labored as a missionary among the 
Indians of Patagonia from 1740 to 1767, declares : " In an 
inland expedition which I made in 1744, being in these 
plains for the space of three weeks, they" — the horses — ■ 
"were in such vast numbers that, during a fortnight, they 
continually surrounded me. Sometimes they passed by me 

1 Herrera, Antonio de. ' ' Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos 
en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano. " Dec. V., Cap. X., Madrid, 1728. 

2 "An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay," Vol. 
I, page 224-25, London, 1822. A German missionary, Father Anthony Sepp, 
writing from Buenos Aires, in 1691, declares that there "provisions are dog 
cheap. An ox, or rather to speak more properly, a fat cow — for they don't 
value the flesh of oxen — they buy for two Beales de Plate — or ten or twelve 
pence; a good horse for two shillings and for less, because I have seen two 
good horses given for a knife not worth sixpence in Germany, and a good ox 
for a few needles. " " An Account of a Voyage from Spain to Paraguaria, ' ' in 
Churchill's "Collection of Voyages and Travels," Vol. IV, p. 608. London, 
1732, 

180 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

in thick troops on full speed for two or three hours to- 
gether, during which time it was with the greatest difficulty 
that I and the four Indians who accompanied me on this 
occasion preserved ourselves from being run over and 
trampled to pieces by them. ' ' x 

During this period, the cattle that had sprung from 
those which had been introduced by the earliest Spanish 
colonists were exceedingly numerous. Those that had been 
turned loose on the Pampa, during its first occupancy by 
the Spaniards, multiplied in a geometrical ratio, and, in a 
few generations, they roamed in immense herds all over the 
country. So great were their numbers in the early part of 
the eighteenth century in the Pampa that "travelers 
were," according to Dobrizhoffer, " obliged to send horse- 
men before them to clear the way, by driving away the 
beasts which stood threatening them with their horns." It 
is, therefore, no wonder that at that time a full-grown ox 
was sold for five groschen — a real de plata 2 — as appears 
from the old books of valuations. Every Spaniard who 
intended to enlarge his estate hired a troop of horsemen, 
who brought him eight, ten, or more thousands of cows 
and bulls from the country, within a few weeks. 3 

There were then estancieros who had herds of a hundred 
thousand cattle. Such a herd today would make its owner 
a millionaire. At that time the animals were valuable 
chiefly for their hides, tongues and tallow. Indeed, the hide 
of an ox, on account of the labor involved in preparing it 
for the market, was worth more than the animal itself. 
Hides were then used for everything. Besides those ex- 
ported to Europe for manufacturing purposes, they were 
in the treeless Pampa used for making houses, fences, 
ropes, trunks, saddles, beds, and, in the absence of bags 

1<< A Description of Patagonia and the Adjoining Parts of South Amer- 
ica," p. 39. Hereford, 1774. 

3 About a shilling of our money. 
8 Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 218. 

181 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and boxes, for the shipment of such commodities as 
wheat, cotton, sugar, tobacco, yerba mate, and many other 
things. 

The carcasses of the animals, which would have suf- 
ficed, we are informed, "to feed a numerous army in Eu- 
rope," were "left on the plain to be devoured by tigers, 
wild dogs and ravens. ' ' There was then no foreign market 
for this valuable beef and there was, apparently, no at- 
tempt made to create one. And this "blind rage" of the 
Spaniards for killing all the oxen they could lay hands on 
continued for a whole century. How many animals were 
slaughtered during this time, and how much valuable food- 
stuff sacrificed, it is impossible to estimate. Probably 
never before was there such an exhibition of wanton waste 
on so great a scale and for so long a period. Only the 
splendid climate and the rich pastures of the Pampa could, 
for so long a time, have supplied the untold myriads of 
cattle which were sacrificed through the cupidity of men 
who had no thought of the future. 

The first merino sheep were introduced into the Pampa 
from Peru. This was in 1550. Nineteen years later, Don 
Juan Ortiz de Zarate made arrangements for the importa- 
tion of four thousand merinos into the Plata region. 
Thenceforward the increase in the number of sheep was 
fully as remarkable as that of horses and cattle. But like 
the horses and cattle, they gradually deteriorated for lack 
of new blood and proper care. 

The foregoing facts show that the climate and pastures 
of the Pampa are singularly adapted to pastoral industry. 
Indeed, all things considered, there is probably no country 
in the world where the outlook for stock raising is more 
promising than in Argentina. But this is not due solely to 
soil and climate. It is in a great measure owing to the 
enterprise of the estancieros, and to their adoption of 
scientific methods in cross-breeding, and to their sparing 
no labor or expense to secure the best results. 

182 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

It is, however, only within the last half century that 
the pastoral industry in the Pampas has been placed on 
a proper basis. Previously only a limited number of es- 
tancieros recognized the necessity of changing the methods 
of their forefathers in stock-raising if they wished to keep 
pace with their competitors in other parts of the world. 
But, during the last few decades stockmen generally have 
awakened to the fact that if they wish to secure a market 
for their beef, wool and hides they must adopt the same 
methods of cross-breeding that have been so successful in 
Europe and the United States. The result of this awaken- 
ing has been astonishing. For nowhere in the Old or the 
New World is greater care now given to scientific breeding 
or to the proper care of blooded stock than in the great 
estancias which are now found in every part of the Pampa. 
Nowhere are there more superb specimens of thoroughbred 
horses, cattle and sheep than in Argentina, and nowhere 
is their number more rapidly increasing. 

The reason is not far to seek. As soon as the Argentine 
realized that there was extra money in blooded stock — 
he is as fond of the almighty dollar as his Yankee brother 
of the north — and that intelligent cross-breeding immensely 
enhances the beauty of an animal — and no one, not even 
an Arab, takes more delight in a beautiful, high-spirited 
horse than does the estanciero of the Pampa — he at 
once resolved to have the best that money could buy or 
well-directed industry could secure. Hence it is that one 
finds in Argentina some of the most celebrated thorough- 
breds in the world — noted winners of Ascot Cups and 
favorite steeds of sovereigns. Thus, "the triple crown 
hero, Diamond Jubilee," of the late Edward VII became 
the property of an Argentine horse-lover. He paid $150,000 
for the animal, but he considered it cheap at this price. 
So, likewise, does the stockman of the Pampa aim to secure 
the best of prize cattle and sheep, regardless of price. He 
will not hesitate to pay $10,000, and more, for a single ram, 

183 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

if it takes his fancy, for he is sure that he will soon get his 
money back in better wool and mutton. 

Today, Argentina is the greatest sheep-producing coun- 
try in the world, except, probably, Australia. In horses 
and cattle it is rapidly becoming a strong competitor of 
Russia and the United States. And, when one considers 
that but a small part of the territory available for grazing 
purposes is in actual use by stockmen, one can realize what 
an enormous increase there is sure to be in the pastoral 
industry of this part of the world, when the vast areas, 
still unoccupied, will be covered with teeming flocks and 
herds. It will help one to estimate what the future holds 
in this respect, when one learns that the best grasslands 
of the Pampas afford sustenance for no fewer than sixty 
sheep per acre. 

For the lover of pedigreed horses, there is no more 
interesting place than a large, up-to-date estancia in the 
Pampa. Here are assembled troops of magnificent horses 
of every breed, and from every country — Arabian saddle- 
horses, Russian Orloffs, British racers and Clydesdales; 
American trotters, French Percherons, German Oldenburgs, 
and numerous others. In a neighboring estancia, where 
the owner specializes in pure-blood cattle, there are select 
herds of Jerseys, Holsteins, Durhams, Herefords, Polled 
Angus — Mochos — and representatives of still other noted j 
breeds imported from England, Holland and Germany. 
In yet another estancia there are wonderful herds of the j 
best breeds of sheep — merinos from Spain, Lincolns, j; 
Leicesters and Oxford Downs from England and Ram- I 
bouillets from France. 

All these full-blooded animals are frequently crossed i 
with the criollo, or native stocks, and after eight crosses [ 
their descendants are registered in stud and herd-books as ; ; 
pedigreed animals — puros por mestisation. 

It is scarcely necessary to observe that these valuable jf 
animals are not huddled together in shelterless corrals, as fi 

184 il 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

were the criollos of a few decades ago. Far f roni it. They 
are provided with clean and sanitary stables and stalls, 
and are constantly looked after by expert stockmen, as well 
as by their owner to whom they are as the apple of his eye. 

I once had a long conversation with a wealthy estan- 
ciero of the Pampa, who was the owner of many of the 
finest breeds of imported stock. He was also the father of 
a large number of children, to whom he was particularly 
devoted. I soon discovered that there were only two sub- 
jects which really interested him, and of which he never 
tired talking — his children and his pet animals on the 
estancia. Whenever they were referred to, he at once 
waxed eloquent. His children, in his estimation, were the 
best in the world, and his horses, cattle and sheep were 
the best of their kind. But I was at times almost in doubt 
as to which most occupied his thoughts and affections — his 
noble sons and daughters, or his wonderful thoroughbreds 
in stable and paddock. And he was only a type of his fel- 
low estancieros. For it can be said with truth that nowhere 
can one find men who are fonder of beautiful thoroughbred 
animals than are the estancieros of the Pampa. 

It is but little more than a generation since the pastoral 
industry of Argentina has assumed international impor- 
tance. Formerly, as we have seen, the chief value of the 
flocks and herds of the country was in their wool and hides. 
Now it is rather in their frozen or chilled carcasses, which 
find a ready market in Europe and which are beginning to 
be in demand in the United States as well. This change 
of relative values is shown by the increasing number of 
huge saladeros and frigorificos which are springing up 
near all the great ports of Argentina and in which count- 
less thousands of tons of beef and mutton are prepared for 
the markets of the world. The single fact that Argentina is 
now able to supply beef and mutton of as good quality as 
that produced in the United States, and to compete with 
the great packing-houses of Chicago and Omaha in the 

185 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

markets of New York and Philadelphia is convincing proof 
of the crowning success of the estancieros as stock-breeders 
and of their enterprise as men of business. The pastoral 
industry of Argentina, in so far as it affects the commerce 
of nations, has, as yet, been little more than inaugurated. 
"What will it be fifty years hence, when the untold millions 
of acres of pasturage, now vacant, shall be dotted with 
myriads of other fattening flocks and herds of as good qual- 
ity as any that now roam the fertile, grass-grown Pampa. 
The giant strides made during the last few years in this 
all-important industry must supply the answer. 

But if pastoral products are great, the fruits of agricul- 
ture are greater. This is remarkable, for it is scarcely a 
half-century since Argentina entered upon its present 
period of economic development. In 1861 the entire popu- 
lation of the Eepublic was less than half of that of Chicago 
of today. Little, for various reasons, could then be done 
towards the cultivation of the soil. But then the tide of 
immigration began to flow towards the Plata region, and 
increased in volume so rapidly that in a single year — 1906 
— nearly two hundred thousand Europeans entered the 
country. A large proportion of these were day laborers 
from Spain and Italy — just the class of men who were 
needed for cultivating the rich acres of the Pampa. By 
1907 the population of the Eepublic exceeded six millions. 
The area of land under cultivation had increased in like 
ratio. Eailroads, which were almost non-existent a half- 
century ago, rapidly formed a network all over the Pampa, 
until now their mileage far exceeds that of any other Latin- 
American republic. These encouraged the immigrants to 
establish homes in the fertile plain and assured them of 
an outlet for their produce. 

The result was phenomenal. Until 1878, the agricul- 
tural products of the country barely sufficed for home 
consumption. After that date — thanks to railroads and 
immigrant labor — the increase in the amount of cereals 

186 




ESTANCIA PEREYRA IrAOLA, NEAR BUENOS AlRES. 





Harvesting Wheat in the Pampa. 




THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

yielded by the Pampa was so great that Argentina soon 
took rank as one of the chief exporters of these important 
foodstuffs. 

I need advert to only two facts to show the marvelous 
progress Argentina has made in agriculture in little more 
than a single generation. The first of these facts is that 
only forty years have elapsed since Argentina was obliged 
to import wheat and flour from the United States for the 
use of her own people. The second is that this same pro- 
gressive country, in addition to providing for her own 
wants, now actually exports more wheat than the United 
States. 

This extraordinary producing capacity is continually 
increasing and is sure to increase for many years to come. 
And this for several reasons. In the first place, only about 
a fourth of the cereal-bearing lands are yet under cultiva- 
tion. Then there is the wonderful richness of the soil. In 
many parts of the country the land is so fertile that it is 
capable of producing the same abundant harvest for twenty 
or more years in succession without the use of fertilizers 
of any kind. Nor is it necessary, as elsewhere, to allow the 
land to lie fallow for a while, or to resort to the expedient 
of rotation of crops. In the northern part of the Eepublic, 
two crops a year are frequently yielded. 

Nowhere will one find a deeper soil than in the rich, 
alluvial areas which are drained by the Parana and the 
Paraguay. This is particularly true of that wonderful 
region — known as the Argentine Mesopotamia — located be- 
tween the Parana and the Uruguay. It is fully as pro- 
ductive as was the famous land between the Tigris and the 
Euphrates in the heyday of its glory and prosperity. No- 
where in South America, not even in the broad valleys of 
the Meta, the Orinoco, or the Amazon have I seen rich al- 
luvial deposits of greater depth and extent. Judging by 
the yield of the land already under cultivation, the soil of 
Argentina will eventually be able to supply a great part of 

187 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Europe with foodstuffs. And, unless present indications 
are misleading, the day is not far distant when the splendid 
grazing-lands of Argentina will be nourishing fifty million 
cattle and two hundred million sheep ; when they will export 
more cereals and frozen meat than any other two countries 
combined. Then will Argentina's ambition to be the food 
producer of the world be realized. Then, too, will her rich 
plains deserve the name that has often been applied to 
them — Fields of Gold. 

I must not, however, fail to note certain pernicious 
agencies which beset Argentina's advance and prosperity. 
These are drought, locusts, and a noxious system of lati- 
fundia. 

Droughts are periodic and frequently entail enormous 
loss and suffering. The Gran Seco, which lasted from 1827 
to 1832, was probably the worst visitation of the kind which 
the country ever experienced. During this terrible period, 
when streams failed and springs went dry, when vegetation 
down to the thistle was destroyed, when "birds, wild ani- 
mals, cattle and horses perished from want of water . . . 
the lowest estimation," according to Darwin, "of the loss 
of cattle in Buenos Aires alone was taken at one million 
head." 1 Fortunately, the Republic embraces such an im- 
mense area that the drought never affects the whole of it 
at any one time, and the loss to the nation, in its entirety, 
is not so ruinous as it would be otherwise. Then there are 
also those magnificent rivers which supply the inhabitants 
with the means of irrigating those parts of the country 
where water is most needed. 

Another formidable foe to the agriculturist is the lo- 
custs, which belong to the species known as the Acridium 
Paranense. 2 This terrible scourge does incalculably more 
damage than the Rocky Mountain locusts — the so-called 
"hateful grasshoppers" of Kansas and Nebraska. They 

1 Op. cit., Chap. VIII. 

2 Also known as La Langosta Argentina. 

188 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

are far more numerous and their devastating passage 
through the country is comparable only with that of those 
locusts of Egypt, in the time of Moses, of which it is said 
1 ' that they covered the face of the whole earth, ' ' and that, 
after their invasion, " there remained not any green thing 
in the trees, or in the herbs of the fields, through all the 
land of Egypt." 

This sounds like the language of hyperbole, but the 
words quoted accurately describe the widespread devasta- 
tion wrought by the dread Acridium Paranense in the broad 
Pampa of Argentina. These destructive insects, coming, 
apparently, from the Gran Chaco, fly in immense swarms, 
miles in extent. Swarm succeeds swarm for many days in 
succession, and when they have passed, the plants and trees 
in their course are stripped of foliage and the fruits of the 
husbandman's labor are a total loss. 

Fortunately for the inhabitants of the Pampa this dread 
plague is intermittent, and several years usually intervene 
between one visitation and another. The Government has 
for years been devising means of defense against this 
periodic visitant, but so far its efforts have been only par- 
tially successful. 

The third great impediment to progress is the latifun- 
dia, which for centuries have weighed on the country like 
an incubus and paralyzed initiative on the part of count- 
less thousands of industrious homeseekers. The greater 
part of the country is in the hands of a few wealthy land- 
owners and syndicates. Their holdings run from ten to a 
hundred thousand acres. In many cases, they are much 
larger. Such vast estates are almost feudal in character 
and are as detrimental to the development of the Republic 
as were the intolerable conditions in Ireland previous to 
the land law of 1898, which hastened the end of the age- 
long struggle between the tenant and the landlord. Ar- 
gentina has, for more than half a century, been striving 
to increase the number of immigrants to her shores, but the 

189 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

existence of the immense estates in question makes coloni- 
zation as difficult as it is unsatisfactory. The result is that 
hundreds of thousands of industrious immigrants, failing 
to secure land where they could establish a home, have re- 
turned to the land of their birth. This has been true par- 
ticularly of immigrants from Spain and Italy. Had they 
been encouraged by something like our homestead laws, or 
had they even been able to purchase a suitable property 
where they could readily market their produce, the popula- 
tion of Argentina would be much larger than it now is, and 
her prosperity correspondingly greater. It was, in the 
judgment of Pliny, the creation of vast estates that eventu- 
ally led to the downfall of Rome — latifundia perdidere 
Italiam et provincias. 1 

But, while the existence of large estates in Argentina 
retards progress by excluding the small farmer who is, in 
every country, a prime factor in the creation of its wealth 
and greatness, there is no reason to apprehend the dire 
consequences which the latifundia have so frequently en- 

1 The Argentine writers, Albert B. Martinez and Maurice Lewandowski, in 
their recent work, ' ' The Argentine in the Twentieth Century, ' ' express them- 
selves on this subject as follows: 

' ' Far from encouraging the promotion of a class of small landowners, the 
State has assisted in the establishment of enormous holdings, which are the 
chief obstacle to the peopling of the country. In place of dividing into small 
allotments, accessible to modest fortunes, the great stretches of lands near the 
railways or the ports, and offering them for sale at low prices in the European 
communities from which a number of immigrants come each year, as is done 
by the United States, Australia and Canada, the Argentine administration has 
subjected all the operations of purchase to long and wearisome formalities 
which quickly exhaust both the savings and the patience of the purchaser. 

"Argentine, then, if she wishes to solve this vital problem of colonization, 
which is for her the problem of immigration, must give careful thought to the 
adoption of some well-devised scheme, with the object of subdividing the pres- 
ent great parcels of land and of attaching the agriculturist to the land he tills, 
by allowing him to become its owner. Without this necessary reform, the coun- 
try will continue to experience the phenomenon of temporary immigration; the 
immigration of men who return to their own countries as soon as they have 
been able to save a little money; a process exceedingly prejudicial to the best 
interests of the country." Fourth Edition, p. 121. Boston, n. d. 

190 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

tailed in other parts of the world. The large families 
which are everywhere found in the Argentine are sure 
to preclude such disastrous results, for the property of 
the father is subdivided on his death among his nu- 
merous progeny, and it is, therefore, only a question of 
a short time until the large estates, against which there 
is now so much opposition, will, by continuous sub- 
division, give place to smaller properties, or be parceled 
out among small farmers like those in France and the 
United States. 

One always associates the Pampa with that interesting 
and picturesque character, the Gaucho. Around him is 
woven all the romance of the Argentine plain. He is the 
hero of innumerable songs and legends. Having both Span- 
ish and Indian blood in his veins, he is the embodiment of 
the daring and endurance of the aborigine, and all the 
bravery and loyalty of the Castilian. He is preeminently 
a lover of the simple, as well as of the strenuous life. 
Naturally averse to city life, his home is on the Pampa 
among cattle and horses. He is satisfied with a small adobe 
hut and the most primitive of furniture. His favorite diet 
is came con cuero — beef broiled with the hide. If he has 
an abundance of this, he is willing to do without bread, 
vegetables and even salt. With beef to eat and mate to 
drink, his capacity for labor and resistance to fatigue are 
incredible. He spends most of the time in the saddle and 
sleeps beside his horse wherever darkness may overtake 
him. His apparel consists of a broad-brimmed hat, a 
chiripa, which is a kind of poncho covering the greater 
part of the body and worn over a pair of white drawers, 
or a loose kind of baggy trousers — bombachas — which are 
buttoned at the ankle. His weapons are a machete, kept 
in a tirador, a broad belt, usually adorned with silver coins, 
a lasso, and a boleadora. The last named article of his 
equipment consists of three boletas, or balls of metal or 
stone, which are connected by thongs, one of which is held 

191 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

in the hand, and so hurled as to entangle the legs of the 
animal at which it is aimed. 

The only luxury the Gaucho permits himself is the orna- 
mental trappings of his horse. These are gayly decked with 
silver, which is always carefully polished. Both horse and 
housing are ever the objects of his assiduous attention and 
both are intimately associated with the chief joys of his 
wild and roaming existence. 

Like the Llaneros of Venezuela and Colombia, the Gua- 
cho is a lover of music and poetry. It is his delight, after 
the toil of the day, to spend a part of the evening in danc- 
ing and singing, to the accompaniment of the guitar; or 
in reciting ballads, or rhymed romances composed by him- 
self, or some other hijo del pais. He may be unable to 
read or write, but he often has remarkable powers of im- 
provisation and he and his associates are frequently, like 
Neapolitans and Sicilians, " cant are pares et respondere 
parati." Many of the songs and ballads of the Gauchos 
have been collected and published, and, like the trovas 
llaneras of the minstrels of the plains north of the Orinoco, 
reveal considerable beauty and depth of sentiment. 1 Lack 
of space precludes my giving more than a couple of speci- 
mens of the quaint melopceias of the Pampean payador, or 
trouvere. They are usually found in the facile meter of 
the old Spanish Romancer o, and are simple relaciones, 
either heroic or sentimental, of wars of long ago, of ven- 
turous expeditions on the Pampa or of the sorrows and 
tragedies of unrequited love. 

When two rival payadores have a poetical tournament, 
they exhibit the same boastful spirit that is so characteris- 
tic of the heroes of Homer. With his guitar across his 
knees, one of the improvisatori sings: 

"Alguien que la echa de guapo, 
Y en lo fiero queda atras, 

1 Cf. the author's "Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena, " p. 210 et 
seq. New York and London, 1910. 

192 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

Es poncho de poco trapo, 
Purito flaco no mas. ' ' x 

His competitor, continuing the cantilena in the same sar- 
castic and defiant style, promptly retorts : 

"Naides con la vaina sola 
Al buen Gaucho ha de correr: 
Lazito de tanta armada 
Nunca ha voltiao la res. ' ' 2 

Some of the poetical effusions of the Gaucho trouveres, 
especially of those of Santiago del Estero, have all the sen- 
timent and sadness of the best Quichua Yavaris. 3 The fol- 
lowing two strophes of a madrigal, which begins on the 

1 He who acts the braggart, and, at the time of danger remains behind, is 
a poncho of very poor stuff — all fringe and nothing more. 

2 Nobody can put me to flight, in showing me but the sheath of his knife ; 
the lazo, which has so large a swing, never upsets the steer. 

The Argentines have a touching legend about a poetical tournament 
between one Santos Vega — the Homer of the Pampa — and Juan Sin Eopa, a 
Mephistopheles of the plains. Santos Vega, according to popular fancy, was 
the soul of the Pampa, and his songs — variously called tristes, vidalitas and 
cielitos — were long the delight of the Gauchos who held their itinerant bard 
in the same affection and reverence which primitive races once entertained 
for their poets who were regarded both as priests and seers. But a day came, 
when the Santos Vega — the idolized singer of the Pampa — was publicly chal- 
lenged by Juan Sin Eopa to a payada de contrapunto. As was inevitable in 
this unequal contest, victory rested with the mysterious payador. Unable to 
endure the disgrace of defeat, Santos Vega mounted his horse and disappeared 
forever in the boundless Pampa. 

Santos Vega se va a hundir 

En lo immenso de esos llanos. 

!Lo han vencido! ILlego! hermanos, 

El momento de morir! 

"Juan Sin Ropa, " as Vincente B. Ibanez, well observes, "is the Argen- 
tine spirit of the city, the wise demon, with all the powers and refinements 
of the civilization which conquers the ingenuous man of the plains as soon as 
he meets him face to face in single combat. And the noble Gaucho, recog- 
nizing his inferiority, acknowledges his discomfiture and retires to die in 
obscurity." Argentina y sus Grandezas, p. 249, Madrid, n. d. 

8 Cf . the author 's ' ' Along the Andes and Down the Amazon, ' ' p. 145. 

193 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

serene summit of hope and ends in the dismal deep of 
despair, are good illustrations of the character of this 
kind of mandolinate poetry: 

Como es, paloma mia, 

Paloma blanca, 
Que para un pecho solo 

Tienes dos alas? 

Es que el amor cobijo 

Que me entregaras; 
Y dos alas preciso 

Para dos almas. 1 

A characteristic stanza from a discarded lover runs 
thus: 

Su labio no se pinto 
Con clavel, coral ne grana, 
Sino eon sangre que mana 
Del corazon que partio. 2 

But the true Argentine Gauchos, who were wont, in 
years gone by, to career over the plains lassoing wild cat- 
tle, or capturing untamed horses with the bolas, are rapidly 
disappearing. In the more settled parts of the country 
they are no longer to be seen. The few that remain have 
retired to the northwestern part of the Republic, or to 
the sparsely inhabited sections of Patagonia. We saw but 
few of them, and these were near the foothills of the Andes. 
With them goes much of the local color of the Pampa. 
With them, also, departs a class of men who contributed 

*0 my dove, my white dove, why hast thou two wings for only one heart? 
"lis because my bosom shelters the love which thou gavest me, and I need 
two wings for the two souls I have. 

2 It is not the color of the pink, the coral or the cochineal which reddens 
thy lips, but that of the blood which gushes from the heart which thou hast 
pierced. 

194 




Two Rival Payadores in a Poetical Tournament. 




.."i ' .: ■■ 



Gaucho Homes 



THE ARGENTINE TAMPA 

much towards the upbuilding of Argentina. They were 
among the best soldiers during the war of independence. 
They assisted materially towards delivering their country 
from merciless, marauding savages and towards develop- 
ing the pastoral industry as it existed before the introduc- 
tion of present scientific methods. As a type, they re- 
sembled our cowboys of a generation ago, and the Cossacks 
of southern Russia of a much earlier date. The more dis- 
tinguished among them will always have a place in the 
history of Argentina as Daniel Boone and Kit Carson will 
ever receive special notice in the annals of our own coun- 
try. 1 

But who is the Argentine? I mean the typical Argen- 
tine, the representative of the soul of the nation, the ex- 

*An English writer describing the Gaucho says of him: "The Gauche- 
proper is a class — a race it may be called — by itself, and, like the Indian, 
is but very slowly modified. Within a radius of very many leagues extending 
from the chief cities of the Platine Eepublic, his occupation is now gone. 
Tillage and sheep-farming have driven him out, and he is retiring across the 
same ground over which the Indian has retired before him. There is a cer- 
tain poetry and picturesqueness about the 'race' as, in a different way, about 
the Moors of Castile, which almost makes one regret to see pass away a fellow 
who will sleep on his saddle at your door-sill, like a faithful dog; who endures 
heat and cold, hunger and thirst, without uttering a complaint; who rides five 
hundred miles on end at your bidding, sleeping in the open air, providing his 
food with the lasso and disposing of it by the simple appliance of his knife, 
flint and steel, with bones or dried weeds as fuel; who would take the cows, 
neats or horses of any one but his patron; who, perhaps, might knock a man 
off his horse and cut his throat for his spurs and stirrups, if these took his 
fancy, but who, in his patron's service, could, with perfect confidence, be 
trusted with hundreds of pounds to go as many leagues and purchase and 
bring in cattle; who moves with grace, speaks with courtesy, asks after all 
the family in detail, sends his compliments to the patrona, or compliments her, 
if he has an opportunity; who marks on the ground the different brands of 
horses or cattle of numerous owners, and traces stolen or strayed animals 
over thousands of leagues — such is my friend the Gaucho. Yet even some of 
these come within the circle of civilization and industry, and become patient 
tenders of flocks. Still, as a class, the Gaucho proper must pass away under 
modifying influences and altered conditions; and where these do not reach, the 
race, from that lack of domesticity, which is fatal to propagation, must 
literally die out." Cf. The Bomance of the Miver Plate, Vol. II, p. 370, 
et seq., by W. H. Koebel, London, 1914. 

195 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

ponent of its aspirations, and the heir of its traditions and 
past glories, the one who is preeminently the son of Argen- 
tina, who, in the midst of the untold thousands of foreign 
birth, is attached to the soil by all the fibers of his being? 

Among the typical Argentines, is, of course, the Gaucho. 
He is, in every sense of the word, a true son of the glebe, 
for he and his forebears have been identified with it for 
centuries. He, too, has had much to do with the upbuild- 
ing of the nation and the making of its history. Much of 
the hardihood and brilliant achievement for which the Ar- 
gentines have so long been celebrated must be credited- to 
this picturesque figure of the Pampa. One cannot but re- 
gret that this class — it cannot be called a race — is so rapidly 
approaching extinction. 

Other typical Argentines are the descendants of those 
old families of Spanish stock who have inhabited the coun- 
try since early colonial times. One finds them in the great 
estancias in every part of the Republic. Here their an- 
cestors have lived and seen their children increase and mul- 
tiply and make their homes on the estates of their fathers 
in true patriarchal style. They are also found in the towns 
and cities, but they belong to the exclusive society which 
has little sympathy with those parvenus whose sole occu- 
pation is the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, and whose 
views of life are but little different from those of Epicurus 
and Confucius. Many of these older families are of noble 
lineage and have in their veins the blood of some of Spain's 
most famous grandees. Like similar families in Lima and j 
Quito, they constitute the aristocracy of Argentina, and 
exhibit, in their intercourse with their fellows, all the dig- 
nity and chivalry and courtliness of the hidalgos of Gran- i 
ada and Castile. 

In the eyes of the law, all who are born in the country, j) 
as well as naturalized immigrants, are citizens of Argen- 
tina, but these are as different from the representatives 
of the old families referred to, as are our latest arrivals 

196 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

from Sicily and Eussia from the descendants of the first 
colonists of Virginia, Maryland, or New England. 

The truth is that the definitive type of Argentine is still 
in the making. What it will eventually be, after the peoples 
of the various nationalities which now compose the popu- 
lation of the Eepublic have thoroughly blended, it is 
difficult to predict. The process of fusion will naturally be 
less difficult than in Brazil, where there is such a large 
proportion of the black and red races. In Argentine there 
are now but few Indians, outside of the Gran Chaco and 
Patagonia, while the Negro is quite a negligible factor. 

In speculating, then, on what will be the result of the 
fusion of the various types at present existing in Argentina 
we have to deal chiefly with the Caucasian race. For the 
Argentine Eepublic, like that of Uruguay, is remarkable 
among the nations of South America for the predominance 
of the white race. As has already been said, the great ma- 
jority of the population consists of peoples of Latin origin. 
These readily assimilate with one another, by reason not 
only of the similarity of language, of literary and artistic 
traditions, but also of the identity of religion and general 
culture and ways of life. Until a half-century ago, the 
population was almost exclusively of Spanish origin. Since 
then it has been notably modified by the vast influx of colon- 
ists from Italy, not to speak of those from other parts of 
the world. But the differences from the parent stock, 
which these people of Latin extraction exhibit in Argen- 
tina, are the result of local and historical causes rather 
than the commingling of native elements. As might be ex- 
pected, the recent arrivals from Spain fuse more readily 
with the native-born inhabitants of the country than do the 
Italians. This is because of the sameness of language. But 
it is only a question of a short time until the Italians also 
will become absorbed into the native population. 1 

'"Unity of language," writes the Argentine statesman, Carlos Pellegrini, 
"necessarily favors the process of fusion, and explains the fact that the de- 

197 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

What will be the resultant type of this fusion of Ar- 
gentine, Spaniard and Italian we can only surmise. For 
as yet we are without the necessary data for determining 
the effect of blood admixture on national character, or the 
influence of heredity and environment on a population com- 
posed of several different elements, like those in question. 
That the type will exhibit the best and most prominent 
traits of the component peoples there is every reason to 
believe. That it will possess the practical intelligence of 
the Spaniard, the individual energy of the Italian, the ar- 
dent and jubilant patriotism of the Argentine, the spirit of 
enterprise, the optimism, the civic idealism of all these 
three combined, there can be little doubt. That Argentina, 
after this fusion of peoples who have given to the world a 
Cervantes, a Murillo, a Calderon, a Dante, a Leonardo da 
Vinci, a Columbus, a Galileo, a San Martin, will eventually 
take a prominent place in literature, art, science and states- 
manship seems assured. It has long been the ambition of 
Argentina to be to South America what the United States 
is in the North — the leader in trade, industry, and the 
dominant factor in statecraft. Blessed with a temperate 
climate, with a soil as fertile as any in the world, with un- 
bounded resources awaiting development, with a peace-lov- 
ing population and a government whose stability is almost 
guaranteed by the magnitude of foreign interests in the 
country, there is every reason why the Argentine Republic 
should realize her aspirations, and achieve a prominent 
position among the great nations of the earth. A genera- 
tion or two of continuous peace and prosperity may suffice 
to enable this young and vigorous republic to take rank 
with the parent lands — Spain, Italy and France — and be- 
come not only the perpetuator of the spirit and the great- 

scendants of immigrants of different race, religion, language, habits and tradi- 
tions are able to fuse so completely as to form a perfectly homogeneous popu- 
lation, one in mind and in sentiment, thus constituting a new nationality, young, 
vigorous, and strongly individual." "The Argentine in the Twentieth Cen- 
tury, ' ' by Albert B. Martinez and Maurice Lewandowski, p. li n. d. 

198 



THE ARGENTINE PAMPA 

ness and the glories of the Latin countries of southern 
Europe, but also the acknowledged head and champion of 
the Latin race in the New World. 1 

1 M. L. Guilaine, in "La Kepublique Argentine Physique et Economique, ' ' 
Paris, 1889, p. XXIII, declares Argentina to be "cette puissance nouvelle qui 
suffirait a elle seule a rehabiliter la race latine a laquelle elle appartient 
et a la relever de cette espece de decheance et d'inertie dont elle semble 
frappee, dans ce dernier quart de siecle, devant la brutale expansion du monde 
saxon et germanique. ' ' 



CHAPTER X 

ALONG THE SOUTHERN FRONTIER OF THE OLD 
INCA EMPIRE 

One of the most interesting journeys which one can 
make in Argentina is from Buenos Aires to Tucuman, by 
way of Rosario. The Central Argentine Railway which 
connects these three cities is one of the best constructed 
and best equipped roads in the Republic. The dining and 
sleeping cars are much like those on our great trunk lines, 
and the employees leave nothing undone that will contribute 
to the comfort and pleasure of the passenger. Besides this, 
the road passes through one of the richest and most flour- 
ishing sections of the Republic. In parts of the country 
traversed, the soil is so fecund that it produces two crops 
annually for twenty years and more, in succession, and 
that, too, without the use of artificial fertilizers of any kind. 
Wheat and other cereals are grown here in abundance and 
constitute the chief source of wealth of this part of Ar- 
gentina. 

Our first stop of any length was at Rosario, a pros- 
perous city of more than two hundred thousand inhabi- 
tants. Although it is nearly two centuries old — having 
been founded by Francisco Godoy in 1725 — its present re- 
markable progress dates only from 1859, when President 
Urquiza made it the port of the eleven so-called Arribena — 
western — provinces. Since then it has become one of the 
world's great centers for the exportation of cereals, es- 
pecially wheat. The Parana, on which Rosario is situated, 
is here deep enough to admit large ocean vessels. The 
docks are several miles in length and plans are made for 

200 



THE FRONTIER OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

making them still longer. They provide every convenience 
for an immense fleet of merchantmen from all parts of the 
world. The quantity of grain exported from this busy mart 
frequently exceeds twenty thousand tons a day. The wheat 
elevators are large and numerous and equipped with the 
latest appliances for the expeditious transfer of the prod- 
ucts of the Pampa to the scores of ocean steamers moored 
at the long line of docks. 

Rosario ranks next to Buenos Aires in population and 
commerce. Its people are as industrious and enterprising 
as they are courteous and hospitable. Their city has all 
the aspects of a modern metropolis. Many of the public 
and private buildings rival the most sumptuous of those in 
the national capital. Some of the villas along the Parana 
are beautiful specimens of architecture. Many of them re- 
semble the suburban homes of our New York and Philadel- 
phia millionaires. There are spacious plazas, beautiful 
gardens, broad and well-paved streets and avenues. The 
schools, hospitals, banks and clubs are thoroughly up to 
elate and are a striking evidence not only of the city's- 
wealth and prosperity but also of its devotion to works 
of education and charity. Argentines love to say that 
Buenos Aires is to their country what New York is to ours. 
One can say, with equal truth, that Rosario is to Argentina 
what Chicago is to the United States. It is not only a great 
emporium whence is shipped to all parts of the world the 
products of the golden plains between the Parana and the 
Andes, but also a center of industry which exhibits better 
than anything else the energy, intelligence and foresight of 
its inhabitants. After Buenos Aires, no city in the Republic 
furnishes better proof of the future greatness of Argen- 
tina than does wide-awake, energetic and progressive Ro- 
sario. 

After leaving Rosario, the next place of interest — at 
least for myself — was Santiago del Estero, the capital of 
the province of the same name. I was interested in it be- 

201 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

cause it was once within the confines of the vast Empire 
of the Incas — an empire that embraced all the territory, 
between the Pacific and the eastern slopes of the Andes, 
from the salt marshes of Santiago del Estero 1 to the lofty 
plateaux of Northern Ecuador. The Quichua language — 
the tongue of the Incas — is still spoken in Santiago by the 
descendants of the old Inca colonists. But it is not called 
Quichua here, as in other parts of South America. It is 
known as Cuzcu, from Cuzco, the famous Inca capital. 
Thus an Indian in Santiago will say "I speak Cuzcu," not 
"I speak Quichua." 

Hearing Quichua in these parts evoked many pleasant 
memories of delightful days in Peru and Ecuador where, 
for months at a time, I was in daily contact with those 
whose mother tongue was Quichua. It recalled many acts 
of kindness, many spontaneous services rendered me by 
these good and simple folk who were ever ready to share 
their frugal meals with me, or to offer me shelter in their 
humble abodes. It freshened the memory of faithful guides 
.in the chilly punas and paramos of the Cordilleras, and of 
devoted servants and cargueros in the montanas of eastern 
Peru. 

That the dominions of the Incas should have been so 
extensive and that the language of the Children of the Sun 
„ should have been spoken throughout a region whose length 
exceeded the distance from London to Constantinople has 
always been regarded as a marvelous phenomenon in 
South American history. Military conquest does not ex- 
plain it. The Incas were able to annex Quito only by a 
political marriage, while they never jeopardized their pres- 
tige by attempting to subjugate the strong and liberty- 
loving Araucanians of Chile. How was it, then, that they 
extended their sway over the Lules and the Calchaquies, 
who, in ante-colonial times, inhabited the northwestern part 
of what is now known as Argentina? 

1 Quichua names of places are found as far south as Rio Tercero. 

202 



THE FRONTIER OP THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

In his " Commentarios Reales," 1 the distinguished Inca 
historian, G-arcilaso de la Vega, gives the answer. Accord- 
ing to him, the inhabitants of Tucuman — which then em- 
braced a much larger area than the present province of that 
name — learning of the achievements of the Children of the 
Sun in the arts of peace, sent an embassy to the Inca Huira- 
cocha, begging him to count their people among his subjects 
and to send them princes of the blood royal to teach them 
the arts, the language and the religion of the Inca Empire. 
This was more than two centuries before the Spaniards set 
foot on the soil of Peru. The incorporation, then, of the 
agricultural tribes of Tucuman into the government of the 
Incas was spontaneous. It was caused by their desire to 
share in the benefits of the civilization for which the Incas 
were so famed, and not the result of a war of conquest 
waged against them by the more powerful tribes who owed 
allegiance to the rulers of Cuzco. 

There are few more touching spectacles in South Ameri- 
can history than that of the ambassadors of the rude In- 
dians of the broad territory of Tucuman, tired of the bar- 
barism in which their people had so long lived, starting 
on their long journey in quest of teachers of the arts of 
civilized life. They do not hesitate to leave the benign 
climate, the umbrageous forests, the comfortable life of 
their native plains, and brave the cold, the fatigue and the 
countless dangers of a journey of five hundred leagues 
through the bare and inhospitable table-lands of the Cordil- 
leras. Only those who are familiar with the forbidding 
character of the country which they had to traverse can 
realize how great must have been their trials and sufferings 
before they arrived at the end of their long and venture- 
some peregrination. But they finally arrived in Cuzco. 
And when they made known the object of their mission, 
they were treated with every consideration by the Inca and 
his court. And what was more to them, and the people 

1 Lib. V, Cap. XXV. Madrid, 1723. 

203 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

whom they represented, they were assured at once that all 
their requests would be granted — that they should have the 
teachers, artisans and kuracas — chiefs — and ministers of 
the Sun they asked for and that their country would, as 
they desired, form an integrant part of the great empire 
of the Children of the Sun. 

The vestiges of Lulu and Calchaqui civilization, includ- 
ing the ruins of towns and aqueducts, which are still found 
in the province of Tucuman, show that the Incas' teachers 
found apt and docile pupils among their new subjects in 
the distant south. Their pottery, especially, is remarkable, 
and reminds one in some of its features of that of the 
ancient Tuscans. The manual and agricultural arts soon 
attained almost the same degree of perfection that so sur- 
prised the Spanish conquerors on their arrival in Cuzco 
and in the great Chimu. A knowledge of the treatment of 
such metals as gold, silver, copper and tin was widespread, 
as was also that of spinning and weaving the wool of the 
alpaca and the vicuna. This latter handicraft still remains 
a favorite one among the Indians in this section of the 
country. The use of cotton fabrics was general, and, if 
we may believe Sr. D. Pablo Groussac, 1 the name Tucuman 
is of Quichua origin and signifies "land of cotton. " But 
the most remarkable fact about the dominant influence of 
the Incas among these people in the land of cotton was that 
this influence was not imposed on them by a conquering 
warrior, but was eagerly sought and received with grati- 
tude by the people themselves. The inhabitants of Tucu- 
man, like the Araucanians of Chile, loved liberty and in- 
dependence, but — a rare thing in the history of nations — 
they loved civilization far more. 

Of the city of Tucuman, or rather, San Miguel de Tucu- 
man, to give its full name, all the members of our party 
will ever cherish the most pleasant memories. The hos- 

1 ' ' Memoria Historica y Descriptiva de la Provincia de Tucuman, ' ' p. 13, 
Buenos Aires, 1882. 

204 



THE FRONTIER OP THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

pitality of its people was both generous and exquisite. Ow- 
ing to the lack of railroads until a recent date, they have 
been quite isolated from the rest of the world. For this 
reason one still finds among them many of the quaint cus- 
toms of colonial times and that peculiar social flavor which 
distinguished the civilization of the Spanish peninsula dur- 
ing the age of Cervantes and Lope de Vega. The women 
are noted for their grace and charm; the men for their 
dignity and goodness of heart. 

"Nowhere in the world," said a prominent business 
man from New England to me — a man who has long made 
his home in Tucuman — "will you find more devoted wives 
and mothers than here in my adopted city." This explains 
in great measure the impressive fact that the rate of in- 
crease of population in the province of Tucuman — exclud- 
ing immigrants — is greater than that of any country in 
Europe. According to statistics, the most favored nation 
of Europe requires fifty years to double its population. 
In Tucuman the number of inhabitants is doubled in thirty- 
seven years. 

Another interesting fact is that the density of Tucu- 
man 's population is greater than that of any other province 
of Argentina, not excepting that of Buenos Aires. It is 
even greater than that of the United States. 

Comparatively few of the people are pure whites. Most 
of them are mestizos, descended from Spaniards who had 
intermarried with the aborigines, especially with those 
tribes who had come under the civilizing sway of the Incas. 
They formed a noble race in which one often finds combined 
the best traits of both the Indian and the Spaniard. 

With few exceptions, the buildings of the city of Tucu- 
man are like those which were found in all the cities and 
towns of Spanish America during colonial times. Their 
style of architecture is identical. They are of one story 
and have, usually, two or more patios, at least one of which 
is used as a corral for horses and other animals. This 

205 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

architectural monotony observable in the older cities of 
Spanish America is the result of laws promulgated by the 
mother country prescribing that all houses be of the same 
form — sean de una forma por el omato de la poblacion. 1 

Stranger than the law regulating the form and con- 
tiguity of the buildings of all centers of population, whether 
large or small, was the reason assigned for having horse 
and cow stables connected with dwelling houses. Incredible 
as it may seem, this arrangement was adopted as a sanitary 
measure. It was in keeping with the theory of the medical 
fraternity in Madrid during the reign of one of the Aus- 
trian Philips, which maintained that, by reason of the prox- 
imity of the Spanish capital to the Sierra de Guadarrama, 
the air was "so piercing and subtle that this kind of 
corrupting it with these ill vapors kept it in good tem- 
per." 2 

These laws, it is scarcely necessary to observe, have 
long ceased to be operative. In Tucuman, as in all other 
progressive cities in South America, each one is free to 
select his own style of architecture for his home and other 
buildings and to make them of as many stories as he may 
choose. We saw here numerous residences of modern de- 
sign, and suburban villas that have but little in common 

1 Another peculiar law, which was more frequently ignored than observed, 
was to the effect that all towns and cities should be on the east of the river 
on which they were located, so that the rising sun should shine on the town 
before striking the water — de primer o en el pueblo que en el agua. 

2 When the Spanish statesman, Esquilache, determined to have the streets 
of Madrid cleaned, the opponents of the measure "le presentaron cierta 
originalisima consulta hecha por los medicos bajo el reinado de uno de los 
Felipes de Austria y reducida a demostrar que, siendo sumamente sutil el aire 
de la poblacion a causa de estar proxima a la sierra de Guadarrama, oca- 
sionaria los mayores estragos si no se impregnara en los vapores de las imun- 
dicias desparramadas por las calles! " "Historia del Eeinado de Carlos III 
en Espafia, Tom I, pp. 267, 268, by Antonio Ferrer del Eio, Madrid, 1856. 

This unhygienic condition, it may here be remarked, was not peculiar to 
Spain or her colonies during the period in question. Similar conditions still 
exist in all the countries of Europe, as well as in other parts of -the civilized 
world. 

206 



THE FRONTIER OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

with the old one-storied Spanish home with its numerous 
patios and corrals. 

One of our greatest architectural surprises in Tucuman 
was the Hotel Savoy. It was a splendid structure, opened 
only a short time before our arrival. It is thoroughly mod- 
ern in all its appointments and is, in every way, a credit to 
the city. The service and the comfort it assures its patrons 
tempts one to tarry among the charming people who are 
found in such large numbers in this interesting old capital. 

A source of never-ending delight were the graceful 
jacaranda trees which adorned the sides of the streets. 
They were loaded with large panicles of purplish-blue 
flowers of rare beauty and luxuriance. I cannot imagine a 
more ornamental shade-tree for the southern cities of the 
United States. If once introduced, it would become as popu- 
lar as the wistaria whose exquisite flower-clusters closely 
resemble in form and color those of the jacaranda. 

Through the kindness of our genial hosts we were able 
to see all the chief places of interest in and around the city. 
A drive that was particularly delightful was to a charming 
summer resort on the forest-covered slope of the Sierra de 
Aconquija, which parallels the great Andean range to the 
westward and whose lofty peaks are covered with eternal 
snow. Here we found a score or more of cozy cottages 
which are occupied by the leading families of Tucuman 
during midsummer, which is our midwinter. Surrounded 
by all kinds of shrubbery, fruit trees and flowers of every 
hue, each of these summer homes seemed ideal places for 
rest and recreation. The climate is cool and exhilarating 
and the views of mountain and plain are superb. It 
has been my good fortune to contemplate numerous mag- 
nificent prospects from many points along the Cordilleras 
from the Caribbean to Patagonia, but I can truthfully say 
that one of the most enchanting was that which opened 
up before my delighted vision as I stood oh the porch of 
the rose-trellised cottage of our amiable host, ex-Governor 

207 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Nougues. It was, indeed, a panorama to delight the eye 
and dilate the soul. It was broad, dignified, tranquil, mag- 
nificent. The severity of the denuded crest of Aconquija, 
desolately grand, was in striking contrast with the opulent 
abundance of the plain, which was covered with a carpet 
which surpassed in loveliness anything that ever came from 
the looms of Shiraz or Cashmere. 

Immediately in front of us, and for miles down the 
mountain's flank, were semitropical plants and trees of 
wondrous beauty and luxuriance. Beyond this forest belt 
was an emerald-green plain whose boundaries were lost in 
the dim horizon, untold leagues distant. Everywhere were 
thriving towns and villages, and in their midst the pic- 
turesque capital of the province with its lofty church-domes 
and steeples. The soft green of the plain was due to tens 
of thousands of acres of sugar-cane, which is the chief sta- 
ple of this fertile and populous province. Everywhere were 
large ingenios — sugar mills — surrounded by the homes of 
hundreds, and, in some cases, of thousands of employees. 
And there were countless flocks and herds luxuriating in 
the well-watered meadows. There were also broad acres 
of golden grain, gardens of exuberant flowers and orchards 
laden with the luscious fruits of every zone. 

"The Promised Land, as seen from Mount Pisgah," I 
observed to Colonel Roosevelt, who was standing near me. 
"Yes," he answered, "you are right. It is like a view of 
the Promised Land." 

But we were not the first to give expression to this 
thought. Even to the earliest Spanish colonists, as Padre 
Lozano informs us, this fair and fertile region was known 
as La Tierra de Repromision. 1 And it deserves the name. 
For in climate, fertility of soil and variety and richness of 
flora it is not surpassed by any province of the Eepublic. 

1 ' ' Historia de la Conquista, del Paraguay, Eio de la Plata y Tucuman, ' ' 
Tom. II, pp. 103-104; Buenos Aires, 1873-75. It has also been called "The 
American Switzerland" and "The Eden of America." 

208 



THE FRONTIER OP THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

The province of Tucuman has long been the center of 
the sugar industry of Argentina. The annual production 
has, in favorable years, been as high as one hundred and 
sixty thousand tons. What is not required for home con- 
sumption is exported to Europe and elsewhere. 

We visited three of the largest sugar factories and plan- 
tations, two of which belong to the families Nogues and 
Hileret, both of French origin. The third is the property 
of an Argentine company of which the governor of the 
state, Sr. D. Ernesto Padilla, one of our hosts, is a promi- 
nent member. Among the employees were Argentines, mi- 
gratory Italians and mestizos from Santiago del Estero. 
We also noticed some pure-blooded Indians who were de- 
scendants of those who received their first knowledge of 
industry and agriculture from the Incas of Peru. Among 
the foremen, engineers, electricians, chemists and book- 
keepers of these vast establishments are many Frenchmen 
and Germans, although many responsible positions con- 
nected with the management of machinery are held by na- 
tive Argentines who exhibit, as far as we could observe, as 
much intelligence and skill as their associates from Ger- 
many and France. 

All of the machinery which we saw in these immense 
plants is of European manufacture. There is a splendid 
opening here and in the two score other ingenios in the 
province of Tucuman for enterprising makers of North 
American machinery. So far as I could learn, our Ameri- 
can agents and manufacturers have done little or nothing 
in this promising field. There was never a better oppor- 
tunity for them to secure the trade in machinery of all kinds 
in this rich province than now, and it is to be hoped that 
our people will not fail to take advantage of present favor- 
able conditions. 

In all these big properties we were impressed with the 
manifest interest exhibited by the owners of them in their 
employees. Everything possible is done for their welfare 

209 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and that of their families. They receive good wages, are 
provided with homes and fuel free of charge, and have 
beautiful churches and schools erected for their benefit. 
Their homes, while modest, are comfortable, and are sur- 
rounded by orange, banana, mandarin and other fruit trees. 
Many of them have beautiful gardens around them, in 
which are not only choice vegetables but also lovely flowers 
such as jasmines, nasturtiums, violets, geraniums and 
roses of many varieties and colors. All these things, joined 
with the mild climate and generous soil, cannot fail to make 
for the comfort and contentment of the thousands of labor- 
ers who have their homes in these parts. 

The people of Tucuman, in order to get the best har- 
vests from their cane plantations, rice and wheat fields, or- 
chards and gardens, have established an agricultural col- 
lege in which scientific gardening, farming and arboriculture 
are taught by trained experts from Europe and the United 
States. This institution is frequented not only by the sons 
of planters and estancieros, but also by those of merchants 
and statesmen who have a less direct interest in the cultiva- 
tion of the soil. The results already achieved by the college 
more than demonstrate the wisdom of its establishment. 
Here experiments are made on plants and trees from all 
parts of the world. Not satisfied with the oranges that 
grow here in profusion — and they are of a good quality — 
those in charge of the college have imported other varieties 
from Italy, the Riviera, from Tangiers, and Majorca, from 
Syria, China and Brazil. In the extensive nurseries of the 
institution there are countless varieties of vegetables, 
strawberries, cherries, lemons, apricots, mandarins. There 
are more than a hundred varieties of peaches, many of 
which are from California, France and China. 

But the chief attention of the professors and students 
of the college is devoted to Tucuman 's most important 
asset — sugar-cane. Every known variety of this plant 
seems to have been brought here. There is sugar-cane from 

210 



THE FRONTIER OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

Cuba, Louisiana and Honduras; from Peru, Mexico, and 
Hawaii ; from Borneo, Sumatra and the Celebes ; from Java, 
India and the Malay Archipelago; from the Congo, New 
Caledonia and the Philippine Islands. If one may judge 
by the well-directed enthusiasm of students and professors 
in their experiments on these different species and varieties 
of cane and on their adaptability to the soil and climate of 
Tucuman, one is justified in expecting results of great and 
permanent value, not only to the people of Argentina, but 
also to the sugar producers of other parts of the world. 

The social, industrial and economical conditions of Tu- 
cuman interested all of our party immensely, but, although 
I fully shared the interests of my companions, I must con- 
fess that I was inclined to devote more time to the relics 
of the city which evoke memories of its storied past and to 
the monuments which recall the glorious deeds of its patri- 
otic sons and daughters during the stirring times cf the 
great war of independence. 

Among these relics is one which is treasured in the 
sacristy of the cathedral. It is a large cross of darkened 
quebracho wood which commemorates the foundation of 
the city on its present site in 1685. I say on its present 
site, because it was first located about twelve leagues to the 
south, near the little town of Monteros, on a small river 
which still bears the name of Eio del Pueblo Viejo. The old 
Tucuman, which was situated near the Sierra de Conquija, 
was founded in 1565, and was designed as a stronghold 
against the attacks of hostile Indians. But on account of 
the insalubrity of the place and other urgent reasons, the 
inhabitants petitioned King Charles II for its transfer to 
its actual site near the Eio Sali. The translation was ef- 
fected with great solemnity. What was particularly not- 
able was that all the buildings, public and private, with the 
exception of the town-hall, had in the new town the same 
relative location which they had occupied in the old. 

Tucuman is celebrated in the annals of Argentina for 

211 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the great victory that was here gained by Belgrano, the 
leader of the patriot forces, over the Spanish army under 
General Tristan on the twenty-fourth of September, 1812. 
Manuel Belgrano was a native of Buenos Aires, and after 
San Martin, is, in the estimation of the Argentines, the 
greatest hero of the war of independence. An imposing 
monument has been erected to his memory in the Plaza de 
la Independencia, and the people of the city cherish the 
memory of Belgrano as if he were a son of Tucuman. 

Of the far-reaching effect of the battle of Tucuman 
there can be no doubt. The people of the city love to speak 
of it as a victory due to their prowess and determination 
to fight in spite of the orders which had been sent to Bel- 
grano from the government in Buenos Aires to retire be- 
fore the enemy, even if fortune should favor his arms. 
Women, as well as men, fought in the ranks of the patriot 
army. Among the heroines of this memorable conflict was 
a woman known in history as Manuela, la Tucumdna, who, 
fighting at her husband's side, so distinguished herself by 
her achievements that she was made an officer in the vic- 
torious army. She and Policarpa Salavarrieta, of Colom- 
bia, to whose memory her country erected a beautiful mon- 
ument in Guaduas, are but two of many of the patriotic 
heroines of South America, whose names are held in bene- 
diction, and whose deeds of daring have long been the 
favorite themes of poets, historians and orators. The 
women of Spanish America are usually thought of as deli- 
cate and timid creatures who would be afraid to venture 
forth from the shelter of their homes, but the two heroines 
named show that, when occasion demands, they are of the 
same determined character as the Spartan mothers of old, 
and that they will unhesitatingly face death on the field of 
battle in their country's cause. 

The victory of Tucuman not only saved the cause of 
the revolution in Argentina, but it also contributed very 
materially towards the triumph of independence in the 

212 



THE FRONTIER OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

whole of the South American continent. It paved the way, as 
Mitre points out, 1 to the victory of Salta, the passage of the 
Andes, the battles of Maipo and Chacabuco, the expedition 
to Lima, and the assistance given to Bolivar by San Mar- 
tin. Without it, the successful campaign of the patriots in 
Uruguay, Chile, Quito, Upper and Lower Peru would have 
been long delayed or paralyzed. After that great triumph, 
as Groussac observes, 2 "Argentine independence became 
an indestructible fact. The patriots knew their strength 
and the royalists their weakness. The battle of Tucuman 
is the first canto of the epopee which, from Panama to 
Buenos Aires, Belgrano, Bolivar and San Martin will write 
with their swords. It does not announce a general of genius 
to the people of La Plata, but it presents a nation of fiber 
and valor to its sisters of the continent. ' ' Since that mo- 
mentous event Tucuman has been called El Sepalchro de la 
tyrania. 

In one of the churches of Tucuman is a statue of Our 
Lady of Mercy — Nuestra Senora de la Merced — which is 
probably the most fondly cherished object in the city. 
Every visitor goes to see it, and every year, on the twenty- 
fourth of September, the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, and 
likewise the anniversary of the battle of Tucuman, this 
statue is carried with great pomp in procession through 
the streets of the city. The statue is decked with finest 
silks and laces and jewels, but the object on which all eyes 
are riveted, as it is borne through the city, is a field-mar- 
shal's baton in the Virgin's right hand. The story of when 
and why this baton was placed in the Virgin's hand is as 
touching as it is beautiful. 

After the battle of Tucuman, just as a division of the 
vanguard of Belgrano 's army was returning to the city, 
it encountered a procession passing through the streets of 
the city carrying in triumph this statue of Our Lady of 

1 "Historia de Belgrano," Tom. II, p. 76, Buenos Aires, 1859. 
2 Op. cit., p. 155. 

213 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Mercy. As the victory of the twenty-fourth of September 
had been won on the day of the invocation of Our Lady, it 
was attributed by the people to her special intercession. 
General Belgrano, who was a deeply religious man, decided 
then and there to name her general of the army. 1 The 
division of the vanguard, still in the saddle and covered 
with dust, joined the procession and accompanied it on its 
way to the battlefield, which was still reeking with the blood 
of its victims. Belgrano then approached the framework 
on which the statue was carried and reverently placed his 
baton in the Virgin's hand. After this the procession con- 
tinued its course to the place of victory. This simple and 
unexpected act of the victorious warrior produced a most 
profound impression on that great concourse of people 
who were as pious as they were brave. This and other 
acts of public devotion no less than his achievements on 
the battlefield made Belgrano a national hero. More than 
this! They, in the words of his biographer, Bartolome 
Mitre, changed the face of the revolution — cambiaron la 
faz de la revolucion. 2 

In view of these facts and associations, can we wonder 
that the good people of Tucuman manifest such tender 
devotion toward Our Lady of Mercy and hail her not only 
as the Generala of the Argentine Army but also invoke her 
as their patroness and protectress'? She is to them what 
Joan of Arc is to France, and much more. She is not only 
the Lady of Victory, but also the Consolation of the Af- 
flicted and the Help of Christians. 

The greatest national monument in Tucuman is the Hall 
of Independence. It is a small and unpretentious, one- 
story building, but it is dear to the hearts of all Argentines. 
For it was here that the first sovereign congress of the 
United Provinces of Rio de la Plata convened on the 

1 La Hizo nombrar Generala del Ejercito, "Historia de Belgrano," Tom. 
II, p. 70, by B. Mitre. 
2 Ibid. 

214 




Casa de Independences. Tucuman. 




Native Fruit Market in Western Argentina. 



THE FRONTIER OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

twenty-fifth of March, 1816, to complete the work which 
had been begun in the constituent assembly at Buenos 
Aires on May twenty-fifth, 1810, when the people of that 
city rose in revolt against Spanish rule. In it are exhibited 
the portraits of the signers of the declaration of inde- 
pendence, the chair that was occupied by the presiding 
officer of the congress, as well as a number of other objects 
that are sure to arrest the attention of the visitor. To pro- 
tect it from the elements, it is now in a large and elaborate 
building of recent construction. 

This memorable congress, in the vast territory which 
was to be affected by its decisions, was well described as 
"the hope of the people and the object of general expecta- 
tion." No one, not familiar with the chaotic condition of 
the country at the time the congress assembled, can realize 
how necessary it was to stem dissension and anarchy, and 
rally the discordant multitudes to the support of the sacred 
cause of liberty. The congress itself, in its manifesto 
issued three years after the opening of its first session, 
describes the sad state of the inhabitants of the Plata re- 
gion in the following paragraphs: 

"Spain fans among us the fire of dissension. . . . She 
sends exterminating armies. They spread everywhere 
desolation and crime, and the successes of war are against 
us. 

"Ah! in what a deplorable state the Eepublic found 
itself when the National Congress was inaugurated. 

' ' Governments succeed each other tumultuously like the 
waves of an agitated sea. An assembly is installed which 
vanishes like smoke; a scandalous conflict exists between 
the supreme government and many provinces ; the spirit of 
party, in which one faction combats another, is rampant; 
everywhere are restless citizens always ready to sow dis- 
trust; the public treasury is exhausted; the State is without 
agriculture, without commerce, without industry; in fine, 
the entire state is rushing headlong from error to error, 

215 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and from calamity to calamity, to its political dissolution." 
Confronted with anarchy within and armed forces from 
without — for Spain was on the point of dispatching a large 
army to suppress the revolt in the Plata region — the pa- 
triots were almost desperate. They were prepared to be- 
come the subjects of any foreign power rather than suffer 
the vengeance of Ferdinand VII. They even went so far 
as to send a special envoy to England to beg the British 
government to take possession of this portion of the Span- 
ish colonies. 1 

But no sooner had the congress assembled, than the 
lovers of freedom began to breathe more freely and confi- 
dently to hope for final deliverance. And they were not dis- 
appointed. On the ninth of July, 1816, the United Prov- 
inces in South America, "invoking the Eternal who pre- 
sides over the universe, and in the name of and by the 
authority of the peoples they represented, protesting to 
heaven and to all the nations of the earth the justice of 
their act, solemnly affixed their signatures to the act which 
declared them and the people they represented to be free 
and independent of the Spanish Crown, to which they had 
been subject for nearly three centuries." The colony then 
came to an end and the Republic was established. The con- 
stituent assembly of Buenos Aires in 1810 had, as has well 
been remarked, carved the statue in marble. The congress 
of Tucuman gave it life and a name. Well could the pro- 
secretary of the Congress, Dr. Jose Augustin Molina — then j 
a priest but subsequently a bishop — in giving expression to i 
the feelings of his associates, as well as to his own, exult- i 
ingly exclaim: \ 

"0, diem lastum, notandum nobis candidissimo calculo.' 22 

But the most interesting part of this dramatic story ; ; 
remains to be told. That refers to the membership of 

1 Dominguez, L. L., "Historia Argentina," p. 362, Buenos Aires, 1870. I 
2 Oh, joyful day! to be marked by us with whitest stone, 

216 



THE FRONTIER OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

the majority of the congress and to the determining influ- 
ence of this majority in securing liberty and independence, 
not only for the inhabitants of what once had been the vice- 
royalty of Buenos Aires but also for all the peoples of the 
entire South American continent. 

The accredited delegates to the congress were twenty- 
nine in number. Of these sixteen were priests and monks 
who, like the lay members, were elected by the suffrages 
of the people whom they represented. They were not only 
the dominating element of the congress, but it was due to 
them, and particularly to one of their number, that the 
form of government agreed upon for the nascent nation 
was a republic and not a monarchy. For the great major- 
ity of the congress, as were also the early leaders of the 
revolution — those who put their sword and their intelli- 
gence at the service of their country when it was in the 
throes of anarchy, defeat and impending despair — were 
avowed monarchists. But the mass of the people, guided 
by a peculiar instinct, which was as remarkable as it was 
powerful, were opposed to a monarchy of any kind what- 
ever. The innate force of liberty among them radiated and 
dilated as irresistibly as light from the sun in heaven. And 
the sentiment of equality and brotherhood was everywhere 
deeply implanted in their hearts. Thanks to this peculiar 
instinct and irresistible force, the Argentines of today are 
what their revolutionary forefathers in 1816 wished them 
to become. The inborn aspirations of the people were fully 
realized only when they saw the monarchy under which 
they had lived for three long centuries replaced by a form 
of government which was republican, federal and repre- 
sentative. 

But their triumph was won in the face of the greatest 
opposition, and opposition, too, on the part of those who 
were the people's authorized representatives. For, when 
the delegates in the congress of Tucuman came to discuss 
the form of government which should be adopted for the 

217 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

United Provinces of South America, it became evident that 
nearly all of them were in favor of the same form of gov- 
ernment against which the people had rebelled only a few 
years previously. They were ready to accept as ruler a 
scion of the house of Bourbon, or Braganza ;. and even men 
of such prominence as Rivadavia, Sarratea, Monteagudo 
and Belgrano — men whose statues are seen in the plazas, 
and whose names are given to the streets of the cities and 
towns of Argentina — favored the idea. More than this! 
Many of the delegates, especially those from Upper Peru, 
seriously discussed the project of asking some descendant 
of Manco Capac and Mama Occlo to guide the destinies of 
the emancipated people of the United Provinces of the 
newborn nation. 

That the plans of the monarchists were frustrated, and 
that Argentina is now a republic is due to the influence 
and determination of a single man. This was Fray Justo 
de Santa Maria de Oro, a learned and patriotic Dominican, 
who afterwards became bishop of Cuyo. This distinguished 
friar, who was an ardent republican, was able to convert 
his associates in the congress to his views and to have them 
recognize that the best interests of the people they served 
peremptorily demanded the establishment of a republic. 
He completed the work which had been inaugurated under 
the leadership of another Dominican, Padre Fray Ignacio 
Grrela, when, at the commencement of the insurrection, 
Spanish rule was declared to be at an end. 1 

The congress was composed of men of exceptional abil- 
ity and learning. Most of them were either ecclesiastics or 
jurists, and the majority of them were university gradu- 
ates. The members of the regular and secular clergy, in 
addition to possessing a profound knowledge of theology 

1 ' ' Alas doce del dia 25 de Mayo caia para siempre en Buenos Aires el 
poder espanol, a. impulsos del pueblo encabezado por un f raile. " " Influencia 
del Clero en la Independencia Argentina, ' ' p. 23, by Augustin Piaggio, Barce- 
lona, 1912. 

218 



THE FRONTIEE OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

and philosophy, were well versed in canon and civil law. 
Before espousing the cause of the revolution, they had care- 
fully considered the morality of their action and did not 
cast their lot with the insurgents until they were convinced 
of the justice of their cause. 1 For most of them, the step 
was a momentous one in many ways. It meant war not only 
against their mother country, but war against friends and 
relatives and coreligionists. It meant cutting loose from a 
country to which they had been so long bound by the most 
sacred ties: by religion, traditions, the glorious achieve- 
ments of their ancestors in discovery and conquest. It 
meant, if they failed, trial and execution for treason. 2 But 
notwithstanding all this, they acted as did Cortez when he 
burnt his ships behind him. They had satisfied themselves 
that they were embarking in a sacred cause, the cause of 
liberty, a cause that was Christian as well as patriotic. And 
like their confreres in other parts of Spain's colonial em- 
pire, like such patriotic priests as Jose Matias Delgado, 
in Central America, like Hidalgo, Morelos and Matamoras 
in Mexico — to mention no others — they gave cheerful and 
unremitting service to their country until independence 
was an acknowledged reality by all the nations of the 
world. 

It has frequently been said that the success of the revo- 
lution in the vice-royalty of Buenos Aires was due to its 
bishops and priests. This is true. Without their cordial 
and active cooperation, it was from the beginning doomed 
to failure. Had not the clergy in the assembly at Buenos 
Aires and in the congress of TucumAn taken the conspicuous 
part they did as champions of liberty, the devastating wars 

1 It has well been said by a Spanish writer that the delegates of the con- 
gress, "Se emaneipaban de su rey, tomando todas las preeauciones para no 
emanciparse de su Dios y de su culto. . . . Querian eonciliar la vieja re- 
ligion con la nueva Patria. ' ' And the device of each one of them was in effect, 
if not in words, Patriota y Beligioso. 

2 " El Acta de la Independencia f ue subscrita por sus autores con peligro 
de muerte." Pioggio, op. eit., p. 397. 

219 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

between Spain and her American colonies would have 
lasted much longer and their independence would have 
been delayed until a much later date. Never in any part 
of the world, except in Ireland during penal times, were 
priests and people more closely united than in the United 
Provinces of La Plata during the critical period between 
1810 and 1820. Never did a people stand in greater need 
of wise and conscientious leaders than when they had to 
choose between contending factions and decide what was 
their duty to God and country. And nobly did the clergy 
respond to the call which was made on them and nobly 
did they meet the duties and responsibilities of the hour. 
With a full knowledge that they were risking all their 
earthly interests, and life itself, on the attitude they as- 
sumed, they went forth everywhere as the apostles of lib- 
erty and as the advocates of independence. They exerted 
their sacerdotal influence to the utmost in public and pri- 
vate, in the home, in the school, in the church, in national 
assembly and congress. Although poor, very poor, they 
unhesitatingly gave the greater part of their possessions 
to the support of the patriot army : 1 monks left their cells 
to minister to the spiritual wants of the soldiers in camp 
and on the field of battle. Dominicans, Franciscans, Mer- J 
cederians, Augustinians, Bethlehemites, priests of St. John 
of God left their homes to serve as doctors, nurses, secre- j 
taries, chaplains, historiographers. 

Nor were the bishops and archbishops less active in f 
the cause of emancipation. From the outbreak of hostili- 
ties, their sympathies were with the people. But when | 
the congress of Tucuman issued its declaration of inde- f 

1 One could then say of the great majority of the parish priests what the K 
Argentine historian, Frias, writes of an ecclesiastic who greatly aided the J c 
insurgents by word and deed: "Su cura, su maestro, su apostol y su guia \ 
dabales el ejemplo antes que todo desprendiose de quanto poseia acopiado en : ; 
su morada para su subsisteneia particular. ' ' " Historia del General, D. 
Martin Giiemes y de la Salta de 1810 a 1832," by Dr. Bernardo Frias, Tom. I, 
p. 430. Salta, 1902. 

220 



THE FRONTIER OF THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

pendence, and when there could be no longer any doubt 
about the wishes of the people, as interpreted by their 
official representatives, they entered the contest in a way 
that left its issue no longer in doubt. They then consid- 
ered the revolution as a fait accompli and required all 
priests under their jurisdiction to submit to the newly estab- 
lished government as the only legally constituted govern- 
ment. On reactionaries they imposed silence. Parish priests 
who, after being duly warned, still persisted in continuing 
agitation in favor of the Spanish monarchy were removed 
from their charges and replaced by others who were either 
native-born or avowed sympathizers of the new regime. 1 
If this did not have the desired effect, the agitators were 
deprived of their faculties, 2 and, if necessary to the coun- 
try's peace, they were turned over to the civil authorities 
to be dealt with according to the gravity of their case. 
No ecclesiastic, whatever his position, was permitted to 
take advantage of his sacred office and prestige to foment 
trouble and impede the free action of the newly established 
government. 3 There were, naturally, many priests and 

1 The archbishop of La Plata, having learned of the pernicious activity of 
certain parish priests in behalf of the Spanish government, immediately re- 
moved them from their charges and replaced them by others in whose " pru- 
dencia, enteresa, humildad, idoneidad y patriotismo," he had full confidence. 
Cf. Piaggio, op. cit., p. 111. 

2 Thus, we read that the vicar-general of the diocese of Salta, acting as 
administrator, in March, 1813, "cireulo un auto en toda la diocesis, suspen- 
diendo las licencias del ministerio, con excepcion de la misa, a numerosos 
sacerdotes . . . prohibiendo bajo penas severas el 'zaherir y vulnerar la 
opinion de nuestra causa y sana conducta de los amadores de nuestra libertad 
e independencia. ' " Dr. D. Julian Toscano, "El Primer Obispado de Tucu- 
man y la Iglesia de Salta," Tom. I, p. 481. 

The same ecclesiastical authority, acting on a complaint of San Martin 
made against a pastor in Catamarca, deprived the offender of his faculties 
and gave his parish to one who was ' ' hijo del pais, ' ' and who possessed ' ' la 
precisa calidad de adicto a la santa causa de la Patria." Poggio, op. cit., p. 
119. 

8 "La autoridad ecclesiastica, poseida del sentimento ndbilisimo que agi- 
taba los corazones de la immensa mayoria de los habitantes del pais, vigilaba 
atenta para que el clero que no simpatizaba con las innovaciones que nos 

221 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

bishops, who had been born and bred in Spain, whose 
sympathies were all with the mother country. Both the 
new government and its adherents respected the opinions 
of these men and their loyalty to the land of their birth, 
as long as they remained neutral and made no attempt 
at a propaganda in support of the interests of the Span- 
ish Crown. They, too, were patriots in their own way, 
and were as ready to sacrifice everything in behalf of 
the sovereign of their native land as were the priests and 
prelates who had espoused the cause of independence. 

As I contemplated the portraits, in La Sola de Inde- 
pendencia, in Tucuman, of the priests and monks who had 
signed the act of independence which signalized the down- 
fall of Spanish power not only in the vice-royalty of Buenos 
Aires, but also in the whole of South America; when I 
recalled the devotion and heroism of the hierarchy, of 
religious orders, of cathedral chapters, of university pro- 
fessors who were mostly ecclesiastics, of parish priests in 
every nook and corner of the Andes and in the scattered 
towns and villages of the Pampa, I could not but think 
that their countrymen have been singularly oblivious of 
the priceless services these distinguished sons of the 
Church rendered their country in the hour of its great- 
est need. 

Everywhere one finds monuments erected in honor of 
Belgrano and San Martin. All this is fully deserved, for 
no military leaders ever had a greater claim on posterity 
for their devotion to their country's welfare and for the 
brilliancy of their achievements. But without the active 
and enthusiastic cooperation of the clergy, victory over 
the powerful foe would have been impossible and eman- 
cipation a chimera. Argentina has done nothing to per- 
petuate the memory of those devoted and patriotic ecclesi- 

dieron patria y libertad no pudiera valerse de su ascendiente sobre los pueblos 
para poner trabas en el camino de la idea regeneradora. ' ; Pioggio, op. cit., 
120. 

222 



THE FRONTIER OP THE OLD INCA EMPIRE 

astics who made triumph possible and independence a 
reality. Considering the nature and importance of their 
services during the nation's long struggle for liberty, they 
deserve a greater and a nobler monument than any that 
has thus far been erected to commemorate the glorious 
deeds of the heroes of the revolution. It should be in the 
most conspicuous and most honorable place in the national 
capital and should exhibit to future generations the in- 
timate connection, as evinced by the clergy in the war 
of independence, between loyalty to country and loyalty 
to the Church. Until this monument shall have been 
erected by the republic of Argentina, a great debt, a debt 
of gratitude and a debt of honor, will remain unpaid, and 
justice to the memory of a large body of the nation's most 
deserving heroes will remain unawarded. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE LEABNED CITY 

About twelve hours after leaving Santa Ana, where 
we were royally entertained by M. Hileret, we were in 
Cordoba, the celebrated old university town which has 
long been named La Ciudad Docta — the learned city. Most 
of our journey from Santa Ana to Cordoba was through 
an arid and unforested country much like northern Mex- 
ico. For long stretches the soil was almost bare of vege- 
tation. Shrubs resembling mesquite bushes, and cactus 
plants covered with flaming red and yellow blossoms are 
the chief representatives of the flora of this part of the 
Pampa. The only wild animal I saw was a zorilla, or 
skunk. For an hour or more before seeing it, I was sure 
this mephitic animal was in the vicinity, for its peculiar, 
offensive odor was unmistakable. I afterwards learned 
that skunks are not only very numerous in this part of 
Argentina, but that their pelts are quite an important 
article of commerce. Many of the so-called Alaskan sables 
worn by women of fashion in Europe and the United States 
are the furs of this enfant du diable of the province of 
Cordoba. 

At times the dust raised by the rapidly speeding train 
was almost stifling. Notwithstanding all the precaution 
that had been taken to make our car dust-proof, the white 
alkaline soil, as fine as tripoli, had a way of forcing itself 
into our stateroom that rendered one most uncomfortable. 
When we arose in the morning, after being suffocated with 
the dust during a greater part of the night, everything — 
our bed, clothing, toilet articles — was covered with a thick 

224 



THE LEARNED CITY 

layer of irritating powder like comminuted pumice. I 
had often experienced great discomfort while traveling 
through the broad alkali flats of Wyoming and Montana, 
but I never suffered so much from dust as in the arid 
waste between Tucuman and Cordoba. 

There was, however, some compensation for the dis- 
comfort endured in the opportunity afforded for study- 
ing one of the most interesting geological features of this 
part of Argentina. We were passing through the region 
of salines — salt lake deposits — which constitute the western 
edge of what was, untold thousands of years ago, the 
great Pampean sea. According to the late Colonel G-. E. 
Church, this inland sea extended from the Ventana and 
Curumalal mountains, south of Buenos Aires, to the river 
Cassiquiare, if not to the Caribbean Sea, and "from the 
Parana and Paraguay rivers on the east to the foothills 
of the Andes on the west." x This immense body of water 
then separated South America into two small continents, 
the Andean and the Brazilian, each of which was peopled 
by distinct tribes, between whom communication was diffi- 
cult, if not impossible. A part of this vast mediterranean 
sea still reappears every year during the rainy season, 
when many thousands of square miles of the Upper Ama- 
zon region are covered with water. 

As one approaches Cordoba, a great change is observed 
in the appearance of the country. Thanks to a more pro- 
pitious climate and to an abundant supply of water, one 
sees everywhere in the neighborhood of the city broad 
acres of yellowing wheat, and sea-green maize, together 
with blue-blossomed flax and purple-flowered alfalfa. 

This marvelous change in the landscape has been effected 
in little more than a quarter of a century. For only a 
few decades ago the land around Cordoba was regarded 
as sterile and utterly worthless for agricultural purposes. 

1 " Aborigines of South America," p. 4, London, 1912, and "Argentine 
Geography and the Ancient Pampean Sea," Geographical Journal, Oct., 1898. 

225 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Even such an eminent man of science as Herman Bur- 
meister had pronounced the Pampa unfit for tillage, and 
by many his judgment had been accepted as final. But in 
this case experiment proved more reliable than theory. For 
only a few years after Burmeister 's opinion was made pub- 
lic, it was conclusively demonstrated that the Pampa is 
one of the best cereal-producing regions in the world. 

Since then the development of the agricultural resources 
of the province of Cordoba has been extraordinary, and to 
no one a greater surprise than to the inhabitants them- 
selves who had hitherto considered even their best-watered 
estancias fit only for grazing purposes. Now its agri- 
cultural products rank next to those of the flourishing 
provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. 

The city of Cordoba, whose present population is about 
eighty thousand, was founded by Geronimo Luis de Car- 
brera, who had been appointed as governor of the prov- 
ince of Tucuman by the famous viceroy of Peru, Don Fran- 
cisco de Toledo. Cabrera, like Diego de Rojas, the first 
governor of Tucuman, was one of those famous Conquista- 
dores whose achievements have cast such a glamour of 
romance over the whole of Spanish America. No body 
of men has ever been more criticised or vilified than these 
daring adventurers, but even their greatest enemies are 
forced to admire their valor and heroism. 

What the sons of Spain achieved during a century of 
conquest has surpassed everything of the kind recorded 
in the annals of our race. No group of men has ever ex- 
hibited so lofty a contempt of death or displayed nobler 
intrepidity in the face of constant danger during a longer 
period of time than did the gallant soldiers of Pizarro, 
Quesada and Valdivia. No undertaking was too difficult 
for them. No danger could deter them from an enter- 
prise which in their estimation promised undying glory. 

But to give them the hearts of steel, which enabled 
them to encounter with alacrity what to others would have 

226 



THE LEARNED CITY 

seemed insuperable difficulties, seven centuries of prepa- 
ration were necessary. Nothing short of an almost inter- 
minable war against the Moors could have prepared them 
for their astounding campaigns against savages and their 
extraordinary adventures in the dark forests, frigid pla- 
teaux and burning deserts of South America. History 
tells us that during the long and terrible warfare with* 
the followers of Islam, there were old Spanish warriors 
who could sleep comfortably only on the bare ground and 
in their cuirasses which were less firm, even, than their 
unyielding hearts. In comparison with the unheard-of 
marches and combats and retreats of these irresistible con- 
querors, bravely enduring all the extremes of heat and 
cold, and suffering all the torments of hunger, thirst and 
disease, the Anabasis of the ten thousand Greeks, as has 
well been remarked, appears only as a military parade. 
But the famous achievements of the Conquistadores in 
South America's southland still await their Xenophon. 

What has here been said of the Conquistadores in gen- 
eral may, with equal truth, be affirmed of the first con- 
querors of Tucuman. They were brave and hardy men 
and were animated with the same spirit of adventure which 
so distinguished the doughty captains of Cortes, Almagro 
and the Pizarros. Their long marches of nearly two thou- 
sand miles from Peru to Tucuman attest this. For their 
course was not through a region in which the climate was 
salubrious, the inhabitants friendly and subsistence abun- 
dant. The very opposite was the case. When not pur- 
suing their weary way through the parched deserts along 
the Pacific, they were advancing over the cold and dreary 
wastes of the lofty Peruvian plateau and cautiously mov- 
ing through the dangerous defiles of the Cordilleras, where 
they were liable, at any moment, to be ambushed and 
annihilated by hordes of hostile savages. Provisions were 
rare and difficult to procure. Even water was frequently 
wanting, and the ranks of the brave adventurers were 

227 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

decimated by hunger and thirst and the rigors of a deadly 
climate. But, undeterred by the sufferings and deaths of 
their comrades, the brave survivors still marched on with 
the banner of Spain always held aloft, as if defying the 
powers of man and nature. 

It has been said that the Conquistadores were spurred 
on to their deeds of high emprise by three mainsprings 
of action. These were the desire to spread the Gospel 
among the heathen, the lust of gold and the thirst for 
glory. This is true. Following the example of Columbus 
and Las Casas and obeying the injunctions of the pious 
and tender-hearted Isabella, all but the most reprobate 
of the conquerors ever retained a consciousness in their 
dealings with the aborigines of their duties as Christians 
and as the soldiers of rulers who had left nothing undone 
that would conduce to the welfare, spiritual and temporal, 
of their Indian subjects overseas. 1 But even for these God- 
fearing men, the lure of gold and the love of glory were all- 
powerful. In the case of many of the leading Conquista- 
dores, it would be difficult to decide which was the more 
potent incentive to action. Some of the more noted of 
them seemed to despise gold and, as a matter of fact, actu- 
ally died poor men, when it was in their power to amass 
the wealth of a Hindu potentate. But there was ever 
present the unquenchable desire to distinguish themselves 
by feats of arms, to achieve immortality as had so many 
of their countrymen in the land of El Cid Campeador. 

During the time of which I am speaking, it was a com- 
mon saying, "Peru for gold and Chile for glory." The 
origin of this saying was, doubtless, the fact that, whereas 
in Peru there was abundance of gold, as well as glory, 
there was in Chile, where gold was almost entirely absent, 
nothing but glory for the adventurous Conquistador. We 
shall see, in writing of Chile, that there was truth in the 

1 Even tne much abused conqueror of Peru, Francisco Pizarro, was not an 
exception. See my "Along the Andes and Down the Amazon," p. 247 et seq. 

228 



THE LEARNED CITY 

saying. But notwithstanding the lack here of the gold- 
stimulus, few of the conquerors have greater claims to 
immortality than those who, like Valdivia and his lieuten- 
ants, added such luster to the Spanish name by their 
achievements under the shadow of Mercedario and 
Aconcagua. 

Of the conquerors of Tucuman, as of those of Chile, 
the dominating motive of action was glory. It was early 
discovered that there was no gold in the Pampa, but, never- 
theless, Spanish warriors welcomed the award of territory 
here by the viceroys of Peru, and, after the natives were 
subdued, were glad to colonize the lands which had been 
assigned them and to make their homes there among their 
brave companions in arms. For even glory in time palled 
on these men of blood and iron. And after long years 
of struggle with the Calchaque, who offered almost as de- 
termined resistance against the Spaniards as the Arau- 
canians across the Andes, they welcomed an era of peace 
and an opportunity to taste the joys of domestic life. 

It was toward the end of this long war between the 
Spaniards and the southernmost subjects of the Incas 
that Cabrera laid the foundation of Cordoba — a city that 
was destined to become the most important in the vast 
territory of Tucuman and to be, for nearly three hundred 
years, one of the chief centers of education and culture 
in Spanish America. Singularly enough, Cordoba was 
founded on the same day that the illustrious Juan de Garay, 
the second founder of Buenos Aires, laid the foundations 
of Santa Fe on the banks of the Parana. And another 
coincidence worthy of notice was that both founders are 
preeminent among the Conquistadores for their exalted 
character, moral worth and the distinguished services 
which they rendered to religion and civilization. By rea- 
son of their admirable qualities of heart and mind, as 
well as by their excellent social connections, both were able 
to gather about them men of noble lineage who were will- 

229 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

ing to share the fortunes of their leaders and establish 
their homes in the cities which they had founded. 

One no sooner comes in contact with the people of Cor- 
doba than he realizes that he is dealing with the worthy 
descendants of its illustrious founders. There is every- 
where an atmosphere of delicate refinement, of true Span- 
ish courtesy and chivalry that is a positive delight. The 
women of the older families of Cordoba are, like their 
sisters of Lima, distinguished by a peculiar grace and 
gentleness all their own, while the men are characterized 
by a dignity and courtesy truly Castilian. This is what 
one should expect when one recalls the intimate relations 
which so long existed between Cordoba and the home of 
the viceroys. There is, too, in the more exclusive families 
of Cordoba something of that noble aristocracy which was 
so striking a feature of the Peruvian capital during colonial 
times and which still persists, in spite of all the democratic 
tendencies which have been so dominant since the vice- 
regal court in Lima was closed forever. 1 

Unlike Buenos Aires and Rosario, which are so modern 
in their aspect, Cordoba has all the appearance of an old 
colonial city. There are the same flat-roofed, one-story 
houses, with spacious patios adorned with flowers and 
shrubs like those of Granada and Seville. The churches 
and monasteries are of the same style of architecture as 
those of similar edifices in all parts of Latin America. 
Some of them are noble structures with interior decora- 
tions that are truly gorgeous. This statement is particu- 
larly true of Santo Domingo, the cherished sanctuary of 
Nuestra Seiiora del Rosario, who is widely known as "La 
Virgen del Milagro. ' ' Santo Domingo is not only the most 
sumptuous church in the Republic, but it is also a favorite 
shrine which is annually visited by countless pilgrims from 
all parts of the country. But here, as elsewhere in Argen- 

1 Cf . the author 's ' ' Along the Andes and Down the Amazon, ' ' p. 263, for 
an account of the men and women of Lima. 

230 



THE LEAENED CITY 

tiiia, the old colonial style of building is being replaced by 
others of an entirely different character, with the result 
that the city is gradually assuming an air of modernity. 
Like Tucuman, it is well provided with electric lights, trol- 
ley lines, paved streets and waterworks. 

One of the show places, in the vicinity of the city, is 
the great Dique San Eoque. It is an immense reservoir 
which supplies energy for the light and power used in 
Cordoba. Besides this, it furnishes water enough to irri- 
gate a quarter of a million acres of land. One cannot be 
long in Cordoba before being asked, "Have you seen the 
Dique San Eoque?" If the answer is in the negative, 
one is immediately told, "Ah, you must see the Dique. 
It is the largest body of w T ater which has ever been stored 
by man." The dam was constructed by French engineers 
and holds nearly nine million cubic feet of water. This huge 
reservoir and the immense light and power plants operated 
by it are in marked contrast to the quiet old city which 
retains so many of the peculiar features which distin- 
guished it during early colonial times. 

I was greatly interested in the educational institutions 
of the city, many of which it was my privilege to visit. 
Among these was a thoroughly equipped agricultural 
school in which we found a goodly number of intelligent 
and ambitious young men who were preparing themselves 
for future work on the great estancias of the Republic. 
There are many schools of this kind in Argentina, and 
in all of them the work accomplished is deserving of the 
highest commendation. 

My greatest surprise, however, was in the convent 
schools for which the city has long been celebrated. They 
are numerous and well patronized. And what is best of 
all is the splendid training which the nuns give to the 
pupils intrusted to their care. They have surely — teachers 
and students — contributed their share to the reputation 
which Cordoba has so long enjoyed as La Ciadad Docta. 

231 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

It was for centuries said of the old university town of 
Bologna, "Bologna docet," because of the thousands of 
students who flocked to her classic halls from all parts of 
Europe. Similarly one can declare, " Cordoba teaches," 
when one considers the number of earnest and learned 
instructors one finds in the convent, as well as in the gov- 
ernment schools of this venerable home of letters and 
culture. 

Rarely have I met anywhere brighter or more eager 
students than those who greeted me in the convent class- 
rooms of Cordoba. Their faces beamed with intelligence 
and the evidence which they gave me of their accomplish- 
ments was more than satisfactory. But I think I was even 
more impressed by their gentle, refined manners than by 
their love of study and proficiency in classwork. One 
could see at a glance that the admirable home training 
of the girls had been perfectly supplemented by the 
example and teaching of the devoted religieuses who ex- 
hibited a particular interest in each and every one of 
their young charges. Many of the girls were descendants 
of the Conquistadores, or of old Spanish grandees, and 
they retained in a marked manner all the beautiful and 
noble traits of character for which their noted ancestors 
were so distinguished. Their sweetness and grace and 
amiability told of generations of culture and refinement 
as well as of centuries of years of intellectual work accom- 
plished by the learned city of which they are the most 
exquisite adornments. 

No one who has any interest in the history or litera- 
ture of Argentina will leave Cordoba without spending 
some time in its famous old university. After the uni- 
versities of Lima and Mexico, it has the honor of being 
the oldest university in the Western Hemisphere. It was 
founded in 1613, and thus antedates the foundation of 
Harvard — the oldest university in the United States — by 
nearly a quarter of a century. Its founder was Fray 

232 



THE LEARNED CITY 

Fernando cle Trejo y Sanabria, the fourth Bishop of 
Tucuman and the first Creole bishop consecrated in the 
vice-royalty of Peru. He was of noble lineage and closely 
related to Hernando Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, and 
the celebrated Hernandarias de Saavedra who was five 
times governor of Paraguay and Eio de La Plata. 

Before his consecration, he was a distinguished mem- 
ber of the Franciscan order and noted for his scholarship 
and his love of letters. Immediately after taking posses- 
sion of his see, he began to establish schools and colleges 
in various parts of his diocese for Indians as well as for 
Spaniards. But the greatest monument to his memory is 
the University of Cordoba, which he not only founded but 
endowed. Strange, however, as it may appear, his statue 
which now adorns the courtyard of the University was not 
erected until nearly three centuries after his death. 

According to the document authorizing its foundation, 
the University was to be the home of Latin, arts and the- 
ology. 1 This, with varying fortunes, it continued to be 
until the year 1800, when it was, by royal cedula, raised 
to the rank of the celebrated Universities of Alcala and 
Salamanca, with all their honors and preeminence. Of 
this institution, reorganized under the name of Univer- 
sidad de San Carlos y de Nuestra Senora de Monserrat, 
the first rector was the illustrious Dean Funes, who occu- 
pies the highest rank in the history of Argentina not only 
as a churchman, but also as a scholar, a statesman and 
a patriot. 

1<< Deseo ver fundados en esta tierra estudios de latin, artes i teologia 
como medio importantisimo para el bien espiritual de espanoles e indios. ' ' 
'•'Bosquejo Historico de la Universidad de Cordoba," p. 393, by Juan M. 
Garro, Buenos Aires, 1882. For an interesting account of the life and labors 
of the founder of the university, see Lozano, "Historia de la Conquista del 
Paraguay Bio de la Plata y Tucuman," Tom. V, Cap. XIII, Buenos Aires, 
1873-5. See also, by the same author ' ' Historia de la Compafiia de Jesus de 
la Provincia del Paraguay," Tom. I, Lib. VII, Cap. XIX, and Tom. II, Lib. 
VII, Cap. XX. 

233 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

If the value of a university be judged by the achieve- 
ments of its alumni, the University of Cordoba deserves 
a high place among institutions of learning. For from its 
learned halls went forth the men who did most towards se- 
curing the independence of South America and towards es- 
tablishing, on a solid basis, the present great Republic 
of Argentina. Among these were ecclesiastics and juris- 
consults, soldiers and statesmen who have shed luster not 
only on their alma mater, but also on the great country of 
which they were such loyal and distinguished sons. Their 
list is long. Of the sixteen ecclesiastics who signed the 
declaration of independence in Tucuman many, if not the 
majority, were alumni of Cordoba. Among laymen of 
note, whose names are on the registers of the University, 
were two whose memories are kept green in Cordoba by 
two of its most imposing monuments. One of them was 
Jose Maria Paz, the ablest tactician among the generals 
of the war of emancipation. The other was Dalmacio Velez 
Sarsfield, the most eminent of the nation's jurisconsults 
and the codifier of its laws. The monument erected in his 
honor, in the plaza named after him, is the most remark- 
able of its kind in the whole of South America. 

But by far the most eminent of Cordoba's sons, the 
glory of his church and country, was the patriot-priest, 
Gregorio Funes, better known in Argentine history as 
l)ean Funes, because he was for years the dean of the 
cathedral of his native city. After receiving the doc- 
torate of theology in the University of Cordoba, he went 
to the University of Alcala in Spain, where he graduated 
in civil law. He was afterwards, as was the custom of 
the time, admitted to practice in Madrid. So profound was 
his knowledge in both theology and law that he was made 
an advocate in the royal councils. Shortly after this he 
returned to Cordoba, where he was appointed vicar-general 
of the diocese, and, on the death of his bishop, he became 
administrator during the vacancy of the see. A few years 

234 ' 



THE LEARNED CITY 

subsequent lie was chosen rector of the University and 
immediately set to work to extend the curriculum of 
studies by establishing several new chairs — among them, 
chairs of mathematics and experimental physics. How 
great an innovation this was at that time may be gathered 
from the fact that these branches were then practically 
ignored in some of the most celebrated universities of 
Europe. Even in the University of Salamanca, which was 
known as the mother of sciences and letters — madre de 
ciencias y letras — mathematics was absolutely neglected 
from the beginning of the seventeenth century until the 
last quarter of the eighteenth — an interval of more than 
one hundred and fifty years. 1 The same may be said of 
the physical and natural sciences, not only in Salamanca 
but in other famous European universities. Small wonder, 
then, is it that the establishment by Dean Funes of chairs 
for these sciences in the University of Cordoba attracted 
widespread attention and that students began at once to 
flock to it from all parts of South America. 

The preceding facts about the celebrated dean give 
some idea of what manner of man he was. They justify 
the opinion which his fellow-citizens had of him when they 
sent him as their representative for the installation of 
the new government, after the outbreak of the revolution 
on May 25, 1810. They chose him because they regarded 
him as "the most commanding personality in the interior 
of the republic, the one of the greatest talents, and the 
one best equipped" for the work which they wished him 
to perform. 2 

1 Don Diego de Torres, a Spanish author, says he was a student in the 
University of Salamanca for five years before he learned of the existence of 
such things as the mathematical sciences. Elsewhere he writes, ' ' Pedi a la 
universidad la institution de catedra de matematicas, que estuvo sin maestro 
treinta anos, y sin ensenanza mas de ciento cincueta. " " Historia del Eeinado 
de Carlos III en Espana," Tom. IV, p. 480, Madrid, 1856. 

2 "La personalidad mas decollante del Interior de la republica, la de 
mayores talentos y de mas solida preparacion. " "El Dean Funes en la His- 
toria Argentina, ' ' p. 39, by Mariano de Vedia y Mitre. 

235 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Dean Funes was, then, the man of the hour when the 
greatest* revolution in history was proclaimed — a revolu- 
tion which was the prelude to the independence of an 
entire continent. He was a born leader. But he was more 
than this. His thorough knowledge of theology and law, 
his sense of justice, and his devotion to duty made him 
always a sane and safe guide — just such a one as was 
needed when the whole fabric of social order was threat- 
ened with utter destruction. 

What confidence his countrymen had in him and how 
they appreciated his services is shown by the positions of 
responsibility with which they intrusted him and the honors 
which they showered upon him. He was from the begin- 
ning one of the guiding spirits of the revolution and his 
opinion was always eagerly sought in days of darkness 
and doubt. In the congress of Tucuman he took a con- 
spicuous part and had much to do with the drafting of 
the declaration of independence. After the congress ad- 
journed to Buenos Aires, it was he, according to the Ar- 
gentine historian, Dr. Lopez, 1 who was delegated to draft 
the constitution of the United Provinces of South America. 
This he did in an incredibly short time and to the satis- 
faction of all his associates. Of the twenty-four deputies 
who attached their signatures to this constitution, nine 
were priests. Dean Funes signed it as deputy from 
Tucuman and president of the congress. Besides this, he 
was the author of the manifesto which was published with 
the constitution. Of this document the historian Lopez 
says: "it should figure as a precious text for use in our 
classes of civic instruction. . . . Every professor should 
carry it in his pocket for daily use in his classes. ' ' 2 

1 "Historia de la Eepublica Argentina," Tom. VII, p. 558, Buenos Aires, 
1888. 

2 ' ' Manifesto que debiera figurar eomo un precioso texto de ensenanza en 
nuestras clases de instruccion eivica — Cada profesor debiera llevarlo en su 
bolsillo dia a dia al entrar en sus clases." "Manual de la Historia Argen- 
tina," p. 574, Buenos Aires, 1910. 

236 




Cathedral of Cordoba. 




Statue of Fray Fernando Trejo 

Sanabria in the Court of 

the University. Cordoba. 




.* ._ 




Ttlifrjfel'fo 




Statue of Dean Funes in 
Cordoba. 



THE LEARNED CITY 

He held at various times the position of representative, 
senator and president of the national congress, all of which 
positions he filled with credit to himself and honor to his 
country. 

No writer of his time had a more facile pen than Dean 
Funes, and no one contributed more than he to form and 
direct public opinion during the first critical years of 
the emancipation. He was at various times editor-in-chief 
of several periodicals, including two of the most impor- 
tant organs of the government. 

But the literary monument on which the fame of this 
eminent ecclesiastic chiefly rests is his "Ensayo de la His- 
toria Civil del Paraguay, Buenos Aires y Tucuman.'' In 
it he makes a spirited defense of the justice of the cause 
of South American independence. The chief object of the 
author, as his friend, Dr. Don Mariano Lozano, declared, 
was to hold up to view a faithful picture of the tyranny of 
Spain and to make a complete apology for the revolution. 1 

I have adverted to some of the achievements of this 
remarkable priest in order that the reader may have some 
idea of the kind of men who were connected with the Uni- 
versity of Cordoba as students, professors and rectors. 

Can any of the universities in the United States point 
to an alumnus who was more distinguished in church and 
state, who achieved more for his fellowmen, or who had 
a wider influence in shaping the destiny of a vast con- 
tinent? I doubt it. The writing of the constitution of 
what is now known as Argentina was, as we have seen, 
wholly his work. The Constitution of the United States 
is the joint work of several of the greatest statesmen 
our country has produced. What Hamilton, Madison, 
Franklin and Jefferson were to our infant nation in the 
United States, that was Dean Funes to Argentina. 

1 "Poner a la vista el cuadro mas fiel de la tirania de Espania y hacer la 
apologia mas acabada de la revolucion. " "Ensayo de la Historia Civil del 
Paraguay, Buenos Aires y Tucuman," Tom. I, p. 21, Buenos Aires, 1910. 

237 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

And yet when this eminent son of Argentina died full 
of years in his native city, the notice of his death in the 
leading paper contained only two lines. Many of the pa- 
pers made no mention of it whatever. Like his illustrious 
co-workers for the cause of independence, Belgrano and 
San Martin, he passed away almost forgotten by his coun- 
trymen whom he had served so long and so faithfully. 
He was, however, spared the ignominies which were heaped 
on Belgrano after his great victories of Salta and Tucu- 
man. He did not, like San Martin, spend long years of 
his life in a foreign land, held up to obloquy by those of 
his countrymen who were too little to understand loftiness 
of character and nobility of soul. But, like Dean Funes, 
they shared in the apotheosis which the nation, after a long 
and strange delay, decreed to the greatest of her heroes 
and patriots. San Martin's remains now repose in a mag- 
nificent mausoleum in the cathedral of Buenos Aires. 
Those of Belgrano have been reverently placed in a noble 
sarcophagus in Santo Domingo of the same city, while as 
a tardy act of recognition of the invaluable services of 
Dean Funes to his country, the national government, on 
the occasion of its first centenary of independence, de- 
creed that a statue should be erected to his memory in 
La Ciudad Docta, to whose glory he contributed more than 
any one man, except, possibly, the illustrious founder of 
the University — Fray Fernando de Trejo y Sanabria. 

In the economical history of Argentina, Cordoba is also 
noted for having been, for nearly two-thirds of a cen- 
tury — 1602-1665 — what the Spaniards called a puerto seco 
— a port of entry in the interior of the country. To us a 
custom house like this particular one seems a very strange 
thing indeed. But it was one of the things demanded by 
the peculiar commercial policy which then prevailed in 
the Spanish dominions. 

From the time of the conquest, Spain had claimed a 
monopoly of the trade with her colonies beyond the seas. 

238 



THE LEARNED CITY 

All other nations were excluded from traffic with the Span- 
ish possessions in the New World. And all trade between 
Spain and her colonies was in the hands of certain monopo- 
lists in Cadiz and Seville. But this was not all. The most 
extraordinary feature of this monopoly was the manner 
in which commodities of all kinds, irrespective of their des- 
tination, were shipped. 

All merchandise intended for America was forwarded 
by two large fleets, convoyed by a squadron of warships. 
One was called the galeones, and the other the flota. The 
flota took charge of the trade between Spain and Mexico. 
The fleet of galleons which carried the cargoes destined 
for Tierra Firme, Peru and Chile, went first to Cartagena, 
where goods were delivered for the merchants of New 
Granada and Venezuela. From Cartagena it proceeded to 
Puerto Bello, on the north coast of the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama. From this point all merchandise consigned to Peru 
and the province of Eio de la Plata was dispatched on the 
backs of mules to Panama City. Here it was transshipped 
to Callao and Arica, whence it was carried by mules over 
the Andes to Potosi in Upper Peru — Bolivia — and thence 
via Jujuy, Tucuman and Cordoba to Buenos Aires. 1 

But what was the reason for this long, expensive, round- 
about trade-route? Why were not goods sent directly from 
Spain to Buenos Aires? These were questions asked by 
the inhabitants of the Eio de la Plata country for nearly 
three centuries. It suffices here to state that the shipping 
monopolists of Cadiz and Seville so willed it, and against 
their arbitrary policy there was no recourse. 

As may readily be understood, the freight rates by 
this long route were enormous. These, coupled with the 
long time required for the transport of goods from Spain 
to Buenos Aires, almost paralyzed trade between the 
mother country and her colonies on the Rio de la Plata. 

a Cf. map facing p. 68 in "Les Origines Argentines," by Eobert Levillier, 
Paris, 1912. 

239 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

But this was not all. There were duties and taxes 
of all kinds, besides premiums, to be paid on account of 
losses sustained at the hands of English, French and Dutch 
pirates and corsairs along the Spanish Main and in the 
South Sea, as well as at the hands of robbers and Indians 
on the mainland, especially between Salta and Buenos 
Aires. The result was that when the merchandise finally 
reached Buenos Aires a price was put on it which was 
often from ten to twenty times its original cost in Spain. 

The duty on goods in transit through Cordoba alone 
was fifty per cent. This was in addition to the duties 
and taxes collected at various other places. The Seville 
and Cadiz monopolies lasted until 1778, when Charles III 
promulgated a law establishing commercial relations be- 
tween the American colonies and all the ports of Spain. 
But the doors of commerce were closed to the other na- 
tions of Europe, until Cisneros, the last viceroy of Rio de 
la Plata, opened the port of Buenos Aires to the merchant- 
men of all nations. 

Naturally, while Cordoba was a port of entry and a 
depository for commodities in transit, it flourished at the 
expense of Buenos Aires. And the long trade-route across 
the Andes and the Pampa from the Pacific to the Atlantic 
was a benefit to a number of intervening towns like Jujuy 
and Tucuman. During the long period that goods for 
Buenos Aires were shipped from Spain by way of Panama 
and Peru, Tucuman was, among other things, the center 
of an important carting industry. For most of the enor- 
mous two-wheeled carts, which were used for hauling mer- 
chandise across the Pampa, were made in Tucuman. 

To give the reader some idea of the difficulties of trans- 
portation by this method, when there were no roads and 
when the plains between Salta and Buenos Aires were 
practically impassable during the rainy season, it suffices 
to state that it required a whole year to make a single 
round trip covering nine hundred leagues between these 

240 



THE LEARNED CITY 

two points, and that the best constructed carts were use- 
less after two such trips. 

One is not surprised to learn that this strange restraint 
put upon the trade of Buenos Aires, one of the best mari- 
time sites on the Atlantic coast of South America, gave 
rise to a big contraband trade in which the colonists, as 
well as French, Dutch and English smugglers, took part, 
to the great detriment of Spanish commerce. Nor is one 
surprised to learn that it was one of the causes which 
led to the eventful insurrection of the colonists in Buenos 
Aires against the mother country on May 25, 1810 — an 
insurrection which was indorsed by the declaration of in- 
dependence in Tucuman, and found its consummation in 
the battle of Ayacucho in 1824, which was the Waterloo 
of Spanish domination in South America. 

Most writers, in discussing Spain's trade monopoly 
with her colonies and her circuitous trade-routes between 
the Guadalquivir and the Bio de la Plata, are loud in their 
condemnation of what they pronounce a fatuous and de- 
structive commercial policy. No doubt the system, so long 
in vogue, did greatly hamper the development of the 
colonies, but the Spanish Government acted in accordance 
with a theory that was accepted as the best by every mer- 
cantile nation of the time. To say that the commercial 
regulations of Spain as compared with those of other na- 
tions of the time were absurd, or that its commercial pol- 
icy was condemned by the saner systems of other coun- 
tries during the period in question, is to ignore history. 

The principles which guided Spanish commerce were 
the same as those which were accepted and defended by 
the ablest statesmen and political economists of Great 
Britain. Thus Adam Smith, in his "Wealth of Nations," 
indicates in a few words what was the approved trade 
policy of the time when he declares: "In the trade to 
America every nation endeavors to engross, as much as 
possible, the whole market of its own colonies by fairly 

241 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

excluding all other nations from any direct trade to 
them. ' ' I And the Earl of Chatham, one of the greatest 
of English statesmen, was so thoroughly in accord with 
this principle that he did not hesitate to affirm, in speak- 
ing for Great Britain : ' ' Let the sovereign authority of this 
country over the colonies be asserted in as strong terms 
as can be devised and be made to extend to every point of 
legislation whatsoever. That we may bind their trade, 
confine their manufactures, and exercise every power 
whatsoever, except that of taking money out of their pocket 
without their consent. ' ' 2 

It was in view of Britain's well-known commercial pol- 
icy, during the period we are now considering, that a recent 
English writer declares: "The general commercial and 
colonial policy of Spain was at least as liberal as that of 
England, and was, during the half century preceding the 
revolution, infinitely more liberal, and, if we make allow- 
ance for the enlargement of the human mind in a hundred 
and fifty years, it must be admitted that the present com- 
mercial policy of the South American republics compares 
unfavorably with the Spanish system. ' ' 3 

Another British authority who has made a profound 
study of the subject exhibits Spain's colonial policy in quite 
a different light from that in which it has so long been 
viewed. "At the opening of the nineteenth century," 
writes Mr. F. A. Kirkpatrick, former scholar of Trinity Col- 
lege, "the dominions of the Spanish monarchy extended 
through seventy-nine degrees of latitude, from San Fran- 
cisco to Chiloe ; in the extreme north and south the line was 
thin, but it was unbroken; and the Castilian language was 
spoken through a distance equal to the length of Africa. 
Over a great part of two continents a heterogeneous popu- 

1 Vol. II, p. 129, London, 1904. 

2 "A History of the Eight Honorable William Pitt, Earl of Chatham," 
Vol. II, pp. 73, 74, by the Eev. Francis Thackeray, London, 1827. 
3 W. A. Hirst in "Argentina," pp. 53, 54, London, 1912. 

242 



THE LEARNED CITY 

lation were not unwilling vassals of the Spanish Crown; 
whatever internal reasons may have existed for revolution, 
the actual impetus came from without, for it was only upon 
the fall of the Spanish monarchy in the Peninsula that these 
American dominions were detached; indeed, it would be 
almost as true to say that Spain fell away from the Indies 
as to say that the Indies fell away from Spain. 

' ' Spanish rule in America is often regarded as a gigan- 
tic and short-lived mistake ; but in fact its long continuance 
is only less noteworthy than its vast extent and the grad- 
ual diffusion of Spanish ideas and ways through that 
extent. One aspect of that rule is remarkable; from the 
middle of the sixteenth century the dominant note of the 
Spanish dominion is peace, a peace unknown in those 
regions before or after the Spanish era. Indian warfare, 
though serious enough to those inhabiting the threatened 
regions, was trivial compared to some disturbances of the 
Pax Britannica in the nineteenth century; no external 
enemy ever penetrated more than a few leagues from 
the coast; the army in Spanish America was little more 
than a coastguard and a military police on some of the 
frontiers. If there is something of oriental immobility in 
this long and peaceful continuance, there is something of 
Latin stability and permanence both in local methods and 
in general result. Spain in America inherited and pre- 
served something of the majesty of Eoman Peace." x 

14 'The Cambridge Modern History," Vol. X, pp. 276-77, New York, 1907. 

Mr. Hirst, op. cit., pp. 63, 64, discussing the same subject, writes: "The 
Spaniards had not the constructive genius of the Eomans, and both in the 
mechanical contrivances of civilization and in the moral force which founds 
laws and institutions they were far inferior. But they played very much the 
same part in South America which the Eomans did in Europe. France, Spain, 
Portugal and Italy are not more distinctively Eoman than Argentina, Chile, 
Peru and Colombia are Spanish. As Spain was in language and institutions 
the most completely Eomanized of all European countries, so she has left her 
mark upon the west more distinctively than any other colonizing power. For 
good or evil, Buenos Aires, Lima and the rest are Spanish cities, and there 
seems no reason to believe that they will ever be anything else, and the Spanish 

243 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

influence seems likely to be as permanent as the Koman in southern Europe. 
Nor will any candid student of the history of the continent be unwilling to 
acknowledge that it was no small achievement for a nation to build up and 
administer such an empire, and he will regret that ignorance and prejudice 
have prevented the world from giving the praise due to a vast political and 
religious experiment which, in spite of extraordinary difficulties, was success- 
ful as far as its own character was concerned, and which, when it broke down 
by reason of the weakness of the mother country, left behind it all its institu- 
tions, political, religious and social. Governors became dictators or presidents, 
but everything remains substantially Spanish." 



CHAPTER XII 

FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

It was about midnight when we left Cordoba, after an 
elaborate banquet given us by the Governor, at which were 
present representatives of the leading families of the 
Learned City as well as all the higher officials of the gov- 
ernment. The professors of the University were also there 
in full force. This gave us a better opportunity of meet- 
ing many charming men and women whom we had not seen 
at other gatherings in the city and of listening, also, to 
the fervid eloquence of several of Cordoba's orators. No 
people in the world have greater facility in speaking than 
Latin Americans, and never is their utterance more fluent 
or their speech more impassioned than when addressing an 
honored guest in an after-dinner discourse. For it is, in- 
deed, quite frequently a veritable discourse, particularly 
when the occasion, like the one referred to, gives the 
speaker an opportunity to dilate on the glories of two great 
nations like Argentina and the United States and to em- 
phasize the supreme importance of maintaining the most 
perfect bond of union between two countries whose des- 
tiny is to dominate the Western Hemisphere. 

There is little deserving of note between Cordoba and 
Mendoza. The landscape is the same as most of that along 
the eastern foothills of the Andes — arid, dusty, treeless, 
except in a few smiling valleys or where the land enjoys 
the benefits of irrigation, which is now everywhere receiv- 
ing more attention from year to year, both from private 
individuals and from the state and federal governments 
as well. 

245 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Mendoza, which counts about sixty thousand inhab- 
itants, is one of the oldest cities of Argentina. But, unlike 
nearly all the other cities and towns of the Eepublic, its 
foundation was due not to colonists from Spain or Peru, 
but to a band of Conquistadores from Chile. As early as 
1559 Garcia de Mendoza, governor of Chile, sent Pedro 
Castilio to annex the district called Cuyo which embraced 
the present provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis 
and which for more than two centuries formed a part of 
Chile. It was only in 1776 that it was formally, by a 
special decree of the Spanish monarch, transferred to the 
vice-royalty of Buenos Aires. 

The Chilean Conquistadores were induced to cross the 
Cordillera by the fame which the region to the east then 
enjoyed of being a land of plenty — "en que se halla que 
comer" — a fame which the industry and enterprise of its 
inhabitants now justify more than ever in its past his- 
tory. An English traveler, writing of Mendoza in the early 
part of the last century, says : "If a man could but bear 
an indolent life, there can be no spot on earth where he 
might be more indolent and more independent than at 
Mendoza, for he might sleep all day, and eat ices in the 
evening, until his hour-glass was out. Provisions are 
cheap, and the people who bring them quiet and civil. ' ' * 
Its atmosphere of dolce far niente, like that of Cordoba 
during the same period and that of Damascus at the pres- 
ent time, then won the hearts of all visitors, and made them 
desire to tarry as long as possible within its tranquil and 
hospitable precincts. 

But the Mendoza of today is not the city that so fasci- 
nated the traveler in the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century. For, in 1861, it was devastated by one of the most 
frightful earthquakes recorded in South American history. 
The loss of life was considerably greater than in the ter- 

x Head, F. B. "Bough Notes Taken During Some Bapid Journeys Across 
the Pampas and Among the Andes," p. 70, 71, London, 1826. 

246 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

rible earthquake of Caracas in 1812, when no less than ten 
thousand people met their death without a moment's warn- 
ing. For, out of a population of fifteen thousand in Men- 
doza, nearly thirteen thousand were buried beneath the 
ruins of the ill-fated city. 

A French geologist, M. Bravard, who was living in Men- 
doza at the time, was led by his researches to predict the 
destruction of the city by an earthquake. He, too, per- 
ished with the thousands of natives. One of the survivors 
of the catastrophe, Don Jaime Albarracin, was talking to 
M. Bravard, when he heard a terrific crash and then found 
himself with a broken leg under the ruins of his home. 
Here he was imprisoned for nearly three days and nights 
before he was extricated. 

' ' The horror of my situation, ' ' he declares, in referring 
to the second night of his horrible experience, "was in- 
creased by a dreadful thirst; the very air I breathed was 
thick with dust and smoke. It seemed an interminable 
night. The second day I heard voices, and, summoning all 
my strength, called out loudly for assistance. All was 
again silent for a couple of hours, till the afternoon, when 
I woke from a short sleep to hear footsteps quite close to 
me. The first man who approached me replied with a 
coarse insult, when I begged him to lift the beam under 
which I lay. His comrades were no less inhuman, for 
they were one of the numerous bands of banditti attracted, 
like birds of prey, to the scene of disaster. They had seen 
the flames afar off on the Pampa and came in scent of 
booty. ' ' 1 He finally was able to bribe a robber with his 
gold watch to remove him from the debris, and thus nar- 
rowly escaped the fate which befell so many of his fellow- 
citizens. 

1 ' So complete was the destruction that when a new gov- 
ernor was appointed a year later, and the site marked out 

1 Mulhall, M. G. "Between the Amazon and Andes," pp. 127-131, Lon- 
don, 1881. 

247 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

for reconstruction, the government could find no heirs, 
or claimants on behalf of three-fourths of the families of 
the old city." But few vestiges of it remain. The prin- 
cipal one is a part of the old cathedral to which is affixed 
a tablet on which is inscribed : 

Euinas del Templo de San Augustin Destruido 
por el terremoto del 20 de marzo de 1861. 

It is remarkable that while Mendoza, Esteco and Oran 
have frequently suffered from serious earthquakes, neigh- 
boring cities, like Tucuman and Salta, have always been 
immune from such visitations. This singular fact seems 
to indicate, as Senor Groussac suggests, that there is a 
line of earth shocks, as there is a path of cyclones, for it 
has almost been demonstrated that the earthquakes in 
question have no connection with volcanic eruptions. 1 

Contrary to what might be supposed, the awful catas- 
trophe of 1861 has not interfered in the least with the 
development of Mendoza. Like Lisbon, which in 1750 was 
suddenly converted into a heap of ruins, it was soon rebuilt 
and is now much larger and more beautiful than ever. But 
the people have taken the necessary precautions against 
the recurrence of a disaster like the one which proved so 
destructive half a century ago. The streets are unusu- 
ally wide, and the houses are built of materials that are 
best adapted to resist seismic disturbances of all kinds. 
Many of the houses are of wood, while others are of a 
peculiar tenacious kind of adobe. For larger structures, 
reinforced concrete is now being used and when the author- 
ities of the city realize the advantages of structural steel 
buildings, as illustrated in the San Francisco earthquake, 
there is no doubt that all large buildings of more than one 
story will be strengthened by frameworks of steel, which 

1< 'Memoria Historica y Descriptiva de la Provincia de Tucuman," p. 95, 
Buenos Aires, 1882. 

248 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

will make them, as nearly as possible, proof against even 
the most violent earth-tremors. 

The streets are most liberally provided with shade trees 
of all kinds. Among them are poplars, weeping willows, 
mulberries and various species of acacia. In the extensive 
yards and gardens around the homes of the Mendozans 
are fruit trees of both the temperate and sub-tropical zones 
— peaches, pears, apples, oranges, bananas, plums, nisperos 
and tangerines of every variety and from every clime. 

As in most other parts of Latin America, the exteriors 
of the dwelling-houses of Mendoza are remarkable for their 
garish colors. They appear, indeed, to exhibit all the va- 
riety of tints found in an artist's color-box. But one for- 
gets all this on entering the comfortable and tastefully 
arranged patios, in which there is a profusion of the most 
beautiful flowers and vines and where the air is redolent 
of the most delicate perfumes. 

But the feature of which the people of Mendoza are 
particularly proud is their public park. It embraces more 
than eight thousand acres, and, when the plans for beau- 
tifying it will have been carried out, it will take rank with 
the great parks of the world. Even now the people of 
the city like to compare it to the Bois de Boulogne and they 
even speak of making it some day the rival in beauty of 
the great Parisian pleasure resort. 

There are several well-conducted schools in Mendoza, 
but the one which gave us the most pleasure was the kinder- 
garten. I had called there with an Argentine friend and 
was so delighted with it that I told Colonel Roosevelt he 
must by all means see it. We, accordingly, made an ap- 
pointment with those in charge of the institution to visit 
it when the children were all present. The reception given 
us by the hundreds of well-dressed and perfectly trained 
little boys and girls is something we shall never forget. 
Their songs, dances, and speeches, some of them in Eng- 
lish, were admirable and were a credit to both pupils and 

249 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

teachers. I never, in any part of the world, saw a kinder- 
garten where the buildings and equipment were better 
adapted to the work in view or where better results are 
achieved. Colonel Eoosevelt was enthusiastic to a degree. 
"By George, this is wonderful! It is the best thing we 
have yet seen. I would not have missed it for anything. ' ' 

No account of Mendoza would be complete without some 
notice of its chief industry — viniculture. It is to this flour- 
ishing city what the sugar-industry is to Tucuman — the 
principal source of its wealth and prosperity. 

The vine was originally introduced into Mendoza. by 
the Spaniards who came from Chile. But it was not until 
the great Pacific Railroad connected the city with Buenos 
Aires and other parts of the Republic that the wine-indus- 
try assumed really notable proportions. An idea of the 
rapid development of this great source of wealth may be 
had when one learns that Mendoza 's vineyards are today 
more than ten times as extensive as they were thirty 
years ago. 

During the last two decades, special attention has been 
given to scientific viniculture and the results have been 
really remarkable. Expert viniculturists have been 
brought from France, Spain and Italy. Large reservoirs 
have been constructed for irrigating the vineyards, and 
the most modern machinery for making wine has been 
introduced. This, together with the propitious climate 
and fertile soil, specially adapted to the growth of the 
vine, sufficed, in less than ten years, to make Argentina 
the chief wine-producing nation of the New World. So 
rapid, indeed, has been the development of this industry 
that the Province of Mendoza alone, with an area about 
equal to that of Illinois, now produces twice as much wine 
as the whole of the United States. 1 Tens of millions of 
dollars are invested in the business, and its output is rap- 

1 Cf. "En Argentine de La Plata a la Cordillere des Andes," p. 198 et 
seq., by M. Jules Huret, Paris, 1913. 

250 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

idly increasing. More than a hundred thousand acres are 
already planted with vines and the amount of land in the 
province equally well adapted to their cultivation is many 
times this amount. 

Some decades ago only Creole vines were found here. 
Now the great majority of them are varieties which have 
been imported from France and Italy. There are vine- 
yards of all sizes, from those embracing two or three acres 
to those embracing several hundred. 

The number of people interested in wine-making may 
be judged by the fact that there are considerably more 
than a thousand bodegas — wine-cellars — in the province. 
That the business pays well is shown by the returns on 
the capital invested, which are frequently as high as 
twenty-five to thirty per cent. Its effect on the growth 
of the city is no less remarkable, for in less than a score 
of years its population has more than trebled. 

We visited the establishments of several of the chief 
wine-growers and were amazed at the size and the equip- 
ment of the plants. The machinery employed for crush- 
ing the grapes, for conveying the juice to the large vats 
where it is allowed to ferment, and for bottling the wine, 
is of the most approved kind and is operated by elec- 
tricity. The cellars and warehouses are of colossal size. 
The cost of one of them was nearly half a million dol- 
lars. 

But nothing, probably, impressed us more than the 
number and immensity of the casks found in a single 
bodega. In one bodega we saw no fewer than two hun- 
dred casks, each containing six thousand gallons of wine. 
Besides these enormous casks of oak, each of which is 
larger than the famous Heidelberg tun, we were shown 
more than fifty vast receptacles made of cement and lined 
with glass which held nearly seventy thousand gallons each. 
The annual product of several of these plants runs from 
four to six million gallons. This is said to be far larger 

251 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

than that of any similar establishment in France, or Italy, 
where wine-making' is such an important industry. 

A most remarkable thing to us was to find that many 
of the largest and most successful wine-growers were 
Italians, and men who, on their arrival in Mendoza, were 
poor day-laborers. Several of those whom we met are now 
multi-millionaires, and their business is still developing 
apace. One of them who had come from a town in Venezia 
told me about a visit he had made the preceding year to 
his old home and how he had surprised his fellow-townsmen 
by his arrival in a special train. "Per Baeco," he said 
with pardonable pride, ' ' they made big eyes when they saw 
me and my family traveling like the King of Italy. ' ? 

This man, however, was only one of the many Italians 
living in various parts of Argentina who by their energy 
and enterprise have in a few years risen from poverty to 
opulence. And several of them, I may remark, were 
analphabets — men whom certain of our people, if they 
had their way, would exclude from our country. Argen- 
tina, however, let it be said in her praise, gives immigrants 
of this class a cordial welcome, for she realizes that her 
present flourishing condition is due more to the thrifty, 
industrious sons and daughters of sunny Italy — whether 
literate or illiterate — than to the immigrants of any other 
nation. 

But the supreme glory of Mendoza is not its educa- 
tional institutions; not its beautiful park; not its wealth- 
producing vineyards. It is rather its undisputed claim 
to be, in the words of the noted bard, Juan Maria Gutierrez : 

La ciudad famosa 
Nido que fue del aguila Argentina — 

the famous city which was the nest of the Argentine eagle. 
As Tucuman exults in being the cradle of liberty, be- 
cause the act of independence was drawn up and promul- 

252 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

gated there, so Mendoza glories in being the city in which 
that declaration was first given effect. It was here that 
the first great offensive operations were begun against the 
mother country, and that, too, at a time when emancipa- 
tion seemed hopeless; when the United Provinces were 
divided and when petty jealousies had pitted one against 
the other; when the power of the central government was 
impotent to enforce order, or to safeguard life and prop- 
erty; when the foundations of public prosperity were ex- 
hausted; when the bonds of social union were snapped; 
when crime and injustice were rampant throughout the 
length and breadth of the land; when broods of blatant 
doctrinaires were everywhere sowing the seeds of discord 
and paving the way for internecine strife; when the social 
fabric was upset and the country seemed irretrievably 
doomed to anarchy and chaos. 

And it was at a time, also, when the enemies of inde- 
pendence were stronger and in a better condition than 
ever to oppose the aspirations of the patriots. The revo- 
lution in Cuzco was suppressed; Chile was subjugated; 
Venezuela was reconquered. The royalists were still 
continuing the struggle in Quito and New Granada, for 
they could count on never-failing reinforcements to make 
the authority of the Spanish monarch respected through- 
out the entire extent of South America. Their triumphs 
had given great prestige to their cause. On all sides their 
forces were augmented by deserters from the rapidly van- 
ishing army of the insurgents. Many believed that all 
hope of triumph by the patriots was lost, and that the 
revolution must necessarily collapse before the well-trained 
and well-equipped legions of the Spanish Crown. They 
were, accordingly, preparing to lay down their arms and 
to seek safety in exile from the vengeance of the enemy. 
The outlook was indeed gloomy, even to the most cour- 
ageous and optimistic. The Spanish general, Morillo, dom- 
inated the north of the continent from the Atlantic to the 

253 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Pacific. Bolivar was vanquished and a refugee in Jamaica. 
To complete the terrible series of disasters which had be- 
fallen the champions of liberty, the Spaniards had just 
won the great victory of Sipe-Sipe in Upper Peru, which, 
in the words of the Spanish historian, Torrente, " corto la 
cabeza de la revolucion " * — beheaded the revolution. So 
convinced, indeed, were his countrymen that this was the 
case that a Te Deum was intoned in all the cathedrals of 
the Spanish monarchy — something that was unexampled 
since the battle of St. Quentin. And the King of France, 
the Czar of Russia, and the other monarchs of the Holy 
Alliance warmly congratulated Ferdinand VII on the 
decisive victory of his arms over his insurgent colo- 
nies. 

But it was just at this critical juncture — when the 
sacred temple of liberty was draped in mourning, when 
Spain had an army of a hundred thousand veterans in 
South America and was preparing to send twenty thousand 
more to crush out the last vestige of the revolution — it was 
then, when all was desolation and darkness, that the long- 
looked-for day of liberty was at hand. 

But only one man in South America knew it. He had, 
for years, been quietly, but effectively, taking measures to 
secure it. He had gone to Mendoza, as governor of Cuyo, 
with that object in view. Day and night he labored un- 
ceasingly in organizing and equipping an army which he 
purposed leading to victory. Most of this army was re- 
cruited in the poor and sparsely populated province of 
which he was governor. And it was the people of this 
same province that supplied him money and munitions. 
The women of Mendoza despoiled themselves of their 
jewels to help on the cause of freedom. "Diamonds and 
pearls," they exclaimed, "are unbecoming in the present 

1 Cf. ' ' Historia Jeneral de Chile, ' ' Tom. Ill, pp. 248, 249, by Diego Barros 
Arana, Santiago, 1884-1897, and "Historia de la Eevolucion Hispano-Amer- 
icana," Tom. II, p. 145, by D. Mariano Torrente, Madrid, 1830. 

254 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

critical condition of the fatherland which demands sacri- 
fices from all its sons, and, rather than drag the chains of 
a new captivity, we offer our jewels on its altar." Little 
could be hoped for from the central government of the 
United Provinces. The nation was bankrupt and the few 
remaining troops, after the disaster of Sipe-Sipe, were 
needed along the Rio de la Plata and on the southern 
border of Upper Peru. It, then, had reason to consider 
itself fortunate if it could prevent the enemy from gaining 
possession of the capital and undoing all the work that 
had been accomplished during the previous six years of 
warfare. 

But who was this prophet who thus peered into the 
future and sighted victory from afar? Who was this mili- 
tary genius who was to strike the chains from his people 
and drive the legions of Spain from the continent over 
which the banner of Castile had so proudly floated for 
more than three centuries? 

It was Jose de San Martin, the liberator of Chile and 
Peru; the man whom the eminent Chilean writer, Vicuna 
Mackenna, declares was "el mas grande de los crillos del 
Nuevo Mundo" — the greatest of the Creoles of the New 
World 1 — one of whom it has been said that "he was not 
a man but a mission. " 

After the crushing defeat of the patriot forces at Sipe- 
Sipe, San Martin saw that the road to Lima, by way of 
Upper Peru, was forever closed to any army operating 
from the United Provinces of La Plata. It was then that 
he formulated the plan of campaign whose objective was 
the crossing of the Andes and the liberation of Chile. But 
this far-reaching plan San Martin carefully guarded as 
a profound secret, until he was ready to strike. He said 
nothing about it, even to his most intimate friends. The 
first intimation of his purpose was given only after the 
disastrous battle of Sipe-Sipe, on November 29, 1815, and 

l "El General D. Jose de San Martin," p. 11, Santiago, 1902. 

255 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

then in a manner that was as dramatic as it was charac- 
teristic of the man himself. 

In the midst of the terror which had taken possession 
of all minds after the rout of Rondeau's army in Upper 
Peru — a rout that particularly dispirited the little army 
of Cuyo, the only nucleus for the time being of a truly 
organized force — San Martin gave a banquet to which 
he invited all his officers. Never was he more frank or 
agreeable than on that occasion. While dessert was be- 
ing served, he rose and in a ringing voice that was vibrant 
with conviction he proposed a general toast : viz., ' i To the 
first ball that shall be fired against the oppressors of Chile 
on the other side of the Andes." These words found an 
echo in the hearts of all present. Confidence was born 
anew. From that moment the passage of the Andes ceased 
to be an idea and began to be a visible act. The American 
revolution then, for the first time, assumed the offensive; 
and the fortunes of war were thenceforward on the side 
of the patriots. 1 

In view of these facts, it is no wonder that the people 
of Mendoza glory in their city as "the nest of the Argen- 
tine eagle "; that they regard their province as another 
Macedonia and San Martin as its Alexander; that they 
honor their former governor, although born on the oppo- 
site side of the Eepublic, as the greatest of their sons, 
and that, in addition to the sumptuous memorials which 
had previously been raised in his honor in Mendoza, as 
well as throughout the nation, the people should erect as a 
crowning tribute to his memory — as they have during the 
past year — one of the most imposing monuments of the 
kind in the world, a monument worthy to stand beside the 
colossal memorial of St. Charles Borromeo on Lake 
Maggiore, and of Dante Aligheiri in Trent; that, when 
speaking of his marvelous passage of the Andes, they 
should declare it a far more remarkable achievement 

1 Cf . Mitre, < ' Historia de San Martin, ' ' Tom. I, pp. 462, 463. 

256 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

than the crossing of the Alps by Hannibal or Bonaparte. 

It is not my purpose to enter into details respecting 
the wonderful campaign which gave San Martin posses- 
sion of Chile, the part of Spain's possessions which was 
designated as "the citadel of South America." I must, 
however, be permitted to direct attention to a few points 
which exhibit his exceptional genius as a commander and 
administrator as well as a remarkable judge of character 
and as one who possessed the faculty of exciting enthusi- 
asm among his soldiers and making them perform prodi- 
gies of valor. When San Martin's plan became known 
outside of Cuyo, it was decried, even by the most experi- 
enced military men of the United Provinces, as foolhardy 
and impossible. Small detachments of the Conquistadores, 
it is true, had crossed the Andes by the Uspallata Pass 
on their way from Santiago to the land which was rich 
in the means of subsistence. They had, during the early 
period of the revolution, been followed by occasional com- 
panies of Chilean and Argentine volunteers who were bat- 
tling in a common cause. No one, however, had ever 
dreamed of the possibility of leading a large army across 
the snow-clad barrier of the cloud-piercing Cordillera. But 
San Martin had, through trustworthy agents and engineers, 
made a thorough reconnaissance not only of the historic 
pass mentioned, but also of several others to the north 
and to the south of it, over which he purposed sending 
simultaneously effective bodies of troops •who were sud- 
denly to attack the enemy at a designated date. 

Let it be said to the credit of San Martin that so great 
was the confidence of his army in their general's ability 
and judgment that the criticisms of outsiders and the pre- 
dictions of disaster made on them no impression what- 
ever. They stood loyally by their commander and eagerly 
awaited the order to march. 

Of the four thousand men who constituted ' ' The Army 
of the Andes," as this famous expeditionary force was 

257 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

called, no one, probably, more eagerly awaited the order 
to advance against the enemy than did a young Franciscan 
monk who had for a time served as a chaplain to the revo- 
lutionary forces. His name was Fray Luis Beltran and 
he was destined to contribute more towards the success 
of the passage of the Andes and of the campaign in Chile 
than any other one person, except the commander-in-chief. 
He was, according to San Martin himself, el muelle real — 
the mainspring — which gave activity and movement in the 
hour of his country's direst need. 

One of San Martin's greatest difficulties was securing 
the necessary arms and ammunition for his men. Little 
could be hoped for from the central government. The gen- 
eral was, therefore, left to his own resources. But these 
difficulties vanished after he had secured the services of 
Padre Beltran. Although, in many respects, a self-taught 
man, he exhibited, in a striking degree, much of the genius 
and inventive power which long ages before so distin- 
guished his illustrious brother in religion, Friar Roger 
Bacon. "He was by intuition a mathematician, a physicist 
and a chemist. As the result of observation and practice 
he was also an artilleryman, a maker of watches and fire- 
works. He was a carpenter, an architect, a blacksmith, 
a draughtsman, a ropemaker and a physician. He was ex- 
pert in all the manual arts, and what he was ignorant of 
he readily acquired solely by the exercise of his extraor- 
dinary natural faculties. To all this he united a vigorous 
constitution, a martial bearing, and a kind and sympa- i 
thetic nature." 

He was just the man that the patriot cause then needed, 

and San Martin no sooner discovered his extraordinary ' 

i 

talents than he intrusted to him the establishment of an |. 
armory for the manufacture of arms and ammunition. S 
"At the breath of Padre Beltran the forges flamed and n 
the metals that were to be converted into the implements n 
of warfare were melted like wax. Like a Vulcan in a , 

258 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

monk's habit, he forged the arms of the revolution. In 
the midst of the noise of hammers striking anvils, and 
the grating of files and saws, he superintended the work 
of three hundred workmen, each of whom he instructed 
in the task assigned him. His voice was thus so affected 
that he remained hoarse until the end of his days. He 
cast cannon, shot and shell, employing the metal of bells 
which he lowered from their towers by ingenious apparatus 
of his own invention. He made gun-carriages, cartridges, 
saddles, knapsacks and shoes. He forged horseshoes and 
bayonets and repaired damaged muskets. And with his 
begrimed hand he drew on the wall of his workshop, with 
a coal from the forge, designs of the contrivances by which 
war material was to be transported over the dizzy paths 
of the Andes and through which liberty was to be con- 
veyed to Chile and to the whole of South America. In 
fine, he was, as Mitre well observes, "the Archimedes of 
' The Army of the Andes. ' " 1 

At last, thanks to Padre Beltran's ceaseless activity, 
the Army of the Andes was fully equipped and ready to 
begin the farthest-reaching campaign in the war of inde- 
pendence. The departure of the expedition was to be as 
dramatic as had been San Martin's toast two years before. 
And it was to be signalized by a religious, as well as by a 
military, demonstration. For San Martin, following the 
counsels of his friend, Belgrano, had introduced religious 
practices into his army as an element of moral discipline. 2 

1 For further information regarding the achievements of this remarkable 
soldier-priest, the reader is referred to Mitre, op. cit., Tom. I, p. 534 et seq. ; 
G. Espejo, "El Paso de los Andes," p. 362 et seq., Buenos Aires, 1882; and 
Vicente G. Quesada, "Kevista de Buenos Aires," Tom. I, page 534. 

2 Belgrano, writing to San Martin about the conserving of a religious 
spirit among his men, bids him have before his mind not only the military 
leaders of the people of Israel but also those of the Gentiles and the great 
Julius Caesar who never failed to invoke the immortal gods and to decree 
thanksgiving for his victories. Mitre, op. cit., Tom. I, p. 258, 259. 

It is gratifying to record that San Martin and Belgrano were united to 
each other by the strongest bonds of admiration and friendship. • ' Belgrano 

259 



THEOUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLANDS 

Every night before taps the rosary was said by companies. 
On Sundays the soldiers heard mass, at which the chaplain 
preached a sermon in which he dilated on the moral virtues, 
on heroism in the defense of country, on the love of liberty 
and on obedience to the higher authorities of the state. 

The great function referred to took place on the eve 
of the departure of the army to the front. The account of 
it, as given by Mitre, 1 is an interesting commentary on the 
manners and customs of the time and takes one back to the 
clays of the Crusades. It indicates, too, better than any- 
thing else the deeply religious spirit that pervaded the 
patriot army from the commander-in-chief to the last man 
in the ranks — a spirit which aroused their enthusiasm as 
nothing else could, and which actually made them believe 
that they were invincible. 

Following the example of his distinguished friend, Bel- 
grano, San Martin proclaimed Our Lady of Mercy, to 
whom the people of Mendoza had a particular devotion, 
the patroness of the Army of the Andes. But in keeping 
with his grave character as a disciplinarian, he dignified 
this act with special formalities. He discussed the matter 
with his chief officers and in concert with them issued the 
proclamation as the order of the day. 

On the day appointed for the imposing function, the 
army, with the general staff at the head, and all in full 
parade, moved from its encampment to the city of Men- 
doza, which was gayly decked with flower-covered trium- 
phal arches, banners, streamers and silk tapestries which 
adorned the fronts of the buildings. Amid the peals of 
bells of eight churches and the enthusiastic acclamations 
of the multitude, the troops formed in the great plaza. 

died in the belief that San Martin was the tutelary genius of South America. 
San Martin always, to the end of his days, honored the memory of his illus- 
trious friend as one of the purest glories of the New World. ' ' Mitre, ibidem, 
p. 197. 

1 Op. cit., Tom. I, page 570 et seq. Cf . also ' ' El Paso de los Andes, ' ' p. 
481 et seq., by G. Espeso, Buenos Aires, 1882. 

260 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

The statue of the chosen patroness of the army was con- 
veyed from the Church of San Francisco, accompanied by 
all the clergy, regular and secular, and guarded by the 
bayonets of her nine soldiers. At the head of the proces- 
sion marched the captain-general, the governor, the mu- 
nicipal corporation, the civil employees and a vast throng 
of the city's inhabitants. In the cathedral was deposited 
the army's banner, a banner which had been embroidered 
by the ladies of Mendoza and adorned with precious stones. 
After it, as well as the general's baton of command, had 
been blessed according to the prescribed ritual, San Mar- 
tin attached it to its staff, when it was saluted by a salvo 
of twenty-one guns. He then placed his baton in the 
right hand of Our Lady of Mercy, as Belgrano had pre- 
viously done when, after the Battle of Tucuman, he had 
proclaimed her the general of the army of Peru. 1 San 
Martin then took the banner and ascended a platform which 
had been erected in the plaza. The troops all presented 
arms, the drums beat a march of honor, after which there 
prevailed a deep religious silence. The general, with un- 
covered head and sonorous voice, then exclaimed: "Sol- 
diers ! This is the first banner of independence which has 
been blessed in America." 2 After this he waved it three 
times, which act was greeted by soldiers and people by a 
thunderous "Viva la Patria!" In a still louder voice, he 
added: "Soldiers! Swear, as I do, to uphold it and die 
in its defense." "We swear," all replied in unison. A 
triple discharge of musketry and twenty-five guns then 
saluted the flag oi redemption of half of South America. 
This was the flag that was to cross the Andes, to wave 
in triumph along the coast of the Pacific, to float over the 
foundations of two new republics, to aid in the emancipa- 

1 Some time afterwards, San Martin, in imitation of Belgrano, named Our 
Lady of Mercy generala of the Army of the Andes and placed his baton at 
her feet. 

2 "Soldados! Esta es la primera bandera independiente que se bendice 
en America," Mitre, op. cit., I, 571. 

261 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tion of still another, and, sixty-four years later, to serve 
as the funeral pall to the mortal remains of the repatriated 
liberator of South America, when they were finally de- 
posited in the noble mausoleum in the cathedral of Buenos 
Aires. 1 

The Army of the Andes crossed the Cordillera at six 
different points. The two most widely separated passes 
were thirteen hundred miles from each other. The object 
of this was to weaken the enemy's forces by separating 
them. By a skillfully devised spy system, San Martin had 
deluded the captain-general of Chile into the belief that 
the invasion would take place by way of the southern 
passes. His real plan he kept a secret until the last mo- 
ment, when he gave the generals of divisions pen-and-ink 
plans of the routes they were to follow, accompanied with 
notes and written instructions. 

The main divisions of the army crossed by the Uspal- 
lata and Los Patos passes with orders to meet on the west- 
ern flank of the Cordillera near the Sierra de Chacabuco. 
It was here where, according to plans drawn up seven 
months previously, San Martin had located the strategic 
point of his whole campaign and where he expected to 
strike the first blow for the independence of Chile. 2 

1 Cf. Mitre, op. cit., Tom. I, p. 568 et seq., and Sr. D. Damian Hudson's 
"Becuerdos Historicos sobre la Provinccia de Cuyo" in Eevista de Buenos 
Aires, Tom. V, p. 183 et seq. 

The first thing we were taken to see, on our arrival in Mendoza, was this 
famous flag, which is still reverently preserved in the municipal palace. 

2 The reserve of the army, which crossed the Andes by way of Los Patos, 
was, it is worthy of note, under the command of a man whose name fills many 
interesting pages in Chilean annals. This was the famous Irishman, Bernardo 
O'Higgins, who, after the passage of the Andes, became the virtual dictator 
of Chile. He was the son of the equally famous Ambrosio O'Higgins, who, 
from a poor errand boy in Ireland, rose to the highest executive position in 
the Spanish colonies — that of viceroy of Peru. He was, indeed, the only one 
of lowly birth who ever attained to such dignity in South America under 
Spanish rule. San Martin had a great admiration for Bernardo O'Higgins 
as a commander and entrusted him with the execution of some of the most 
difficult operations connected with Chilean emancipation. There was also an- 

262 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

I was glad that our route lay over the Uspallata Pass ; 
for we were thus led among scenes made historic by both 
San Martin and the Conquistadores. True, San Martin, 
in going to Chile for the first time, went by the way of 
Los Patos, but subsequently, during his Chilean cam- 
paign, he crossed the Andes several times by way of 
Uspallata. This pass lies to the south of giant Aconcagua, 
while the pass of Los Patos is on the northern flank. 

It is not my purpose to describe the scenery along this 
famous pass, for I have elsewhere * given accounts of other 
Andean passes, some of which are much loftier while 
others are much more celebrated and of greater historical 
interest than Uspallata. Nor do I purpose to give a topo- 
graphical account of the route followed by the Army of 
the Andes, or enumerate the countless difficulties which 
it encountered and surmounted before reaching its ob- 
jective on the western versant of the great mountain bar- 
rier which separates Argentina from Chile. But I must 
say that as our train slowly wended its way along the 
meandering Eio Mendoza, from the western verge of the 
Pampa to the tunnel which pierces the crest of the Cor- 
dillera, I could not help admiring, as I had so often admired 

other son of the Emerald Isle, it may here be added, to whom San Martin was 
deeply attached. That was his favorite aide-de-camp O'Brien, who always 
proved himself worthy of his illustrious chief's fullest confidence. 

The Chilean historian, B. Vicuna Mackenna, gives the reason in charac- 
teristic fashion, for San Martin's predilection for his dashing cavalry officer 
when he declares: 

"Tenia esa predileccion mui buenas razones de ser, porque O'Brien era 
hermoso i corpulento como un titan, valiente como el mas afilado sable de su 
rejimiento, jinete como un centauro, i mas que todo esto, callado como una 
piedra, o mas bien, como un enigma, porque, afuera de irlandes, havia olividado 
el ingles i no habia aprendido el espanol. Fuera de esto, O'Brien era un 
soldado cumplido, porque en la vida no le gustaron con pasion sino dos cosas; 
las batallas i las buenas mozas, que, a decir verdad, todo es guerra. " "Kela- 
rion Historica, " in the chapter entitled "El Jeneral San Martin," p. 1, 
Santiago. 

x In "Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena" and "Along the Andes 
and Down the Amazon." 

263 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

before in other parts of South America, the dauntless cour- 
age of the Conquistadores in confronting and overcoming 
obstacles which seemed to be insurmountable. And as we 
passed through the narrow denies and along the edges of 
deep chasms, where there was barely room for a bridle 
path before the advent of the railway engineers, I mar- 
veled at the daring of San Martin in essaying the passage 
of the Andes with an army of four thousand men, and 
still more at the wonderful success which crowned his 
stupendous undertaking in the short space of three weeks. 
The distance from Mendoza to Chacabuco by the 
tortuous Uspallata Pass is nearly three hundred miles. 
By Los Patos Pass it is considerably greater. For most 
of the way the Cordillera is quite bare of vegetation. Only 
here and there are patches of cactus, mosses and thorny 
shrubs. Near the cloud- and snow-covered crest of the 
Andes, the only living thing that is visible is an occasional 
condor wheeling in airy circles above "traces of the world 
in embryo as it emerged from chaos in the process of 
creation," where 

"Die unbegreiflich hohen Werke 
Sind herrlich wie am ersten Tag." 

For this reason, it was necessary for San Martin to 
provide food for his men and forage for the thousands 
of pack animals required for the transportation of guns 
and stores. But he proved himself equal to the emergency 
and reached his goal with his army in the best of con- 
dition, on the day and almost at the hour predicted before 
leaving Mendoza. 

The cumbre, the highest point of the Uspallata Pass 
attained by the invading army, is nearly thirteen thousand 
feet high — more than a mile higher than the celebrated 
pass of the Little St. Bernard, crossed by Hannibal, and 
nearly a mile higher than the pass of the Great St. Ber- 

264 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

nard, which was made so famous by the expedition of 
Bonaparte into Italy. 

I must, however, in the interest of historical truth, 
state that the manner in which both Napoleon and San 
Martin crossed the Alps and the Andes was not, as is al- 
ways represented by artists, on splendid white chargers 
which scented from afar the smoke of battle and " whose 
burnished caparisons dazzled the eye with their splendor. ' ' 
Both of these great commanders crossed the snow-crowned 
mountains in question on the backs of the humble, sure- 
footed mule. In this they exhibited their usual good sense 
and possibly thus saved themselves from a premature death 
in a yawning abyss or a roaring torrent. 

We all were eager to see the noted statue of "The 
Christ of the Andes," which stands on the cumbre on the 
boundary line between Argentina and Chile, but the unfa- 
vorable condition of the old stage-road, which is little used 
since the completion of the trans-Andine tunnel, and the 
limited time we had at our disposition, obliged us to forego 
what would, for many reasons, have given us the keenest 
pleasure. The erection of this noble monument to the 
Prince of Peace, like the proclamation by Belgrano and 
San Martin of Nuestra Senora de la Merced as the gen- 
eralissimo of the patriot army, is another of the countless 
evidences of the remarkable religious sentiment which so 
distinguishes the people of Spanish origin, and which 
makes them such models of chivalry and exalted ideal- 
ism. 

Every child in Argentina and Chile is familiar with 
the story of this superb monument, and the idea it em- 
bodies ; but, more is the pity, little is known about it out- 
side of these two countries. And still less, to judge by 
the terrific world-war which is now waging, is there a dis- 
position to imitate the generous spirit of conciliation and 
the splendid example of amity given the world by those 
far-off nations under the Southern Cross. For this reason, 

265 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

a word about the placing of the statue of Christo Redentor 
on the site it now occupies will not be out of place. 

From the time of the emancipation of Spanish Amer- 
ica, there had been much uncertainty about the boundaries 
between the various republics. For more than half a 
century, the inhabitants of these countries were so occu- 
pied in organizing their systems of administration, devel- 
oping commerce and industry and holding the Indians 
in check, that they had little time or inclination to discuss 
or determine the extent of jurisdiction of their respective 
governments. Besides, the centers of population were so 
few and so widely separated from one another, and the 
extent of territory of each nation was so immense, that the 
exact line of demarcation between the divers republics was 
regarded as a matter of minor importance. 

But a time at length arrived when the questions of 
boundary lines had to be settled once for all. The contro- 
versy respecting the line of demarcation between Chile and 
Argentine — to confine ourselves to these two countries — 
at one time became so bitter that war seemed inevitable. 
But when hostilities seemed imminent, the two nations, 
whose sons had fought side by side in the war of independ- 
ence, agreed to submit the matter to arbitration. The 
award of the arbitrator, the late Edward VII, which was 
announced in 1902, was promptly accepted by the two 
litigant nations. Bloodshed was thus avoided, armaments 
were reduced and peace established on a firm basis. 

While the two powers were marshaling their armies and 
preparing their fleets for action, members of the hierarchy 
of both Chile and Argentina were doing everything pos- 
sible to avert the impending disaster. The Argentine 
Bishop of San Juan, a pious Dominican, then conceived the 
idea of erecting a statue of Christ the Eedeemer on one 
of the lofty peaks of the Andes near the Chilean frontier. 
Several models were presented, but the one finally accepted 
was that of a young sculptor of Buenos Aires, Mateo 

266 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

Alonso. The statue was completed in 1903, after a delay 
of two years. It was then placed on exhibition in the cap- 
ital and drew enthusiastic crowds of all classes, who were 
loud in their praise of the splendid work of the youthful 
Porteno. Among those who went to see this noble work 
of art were Dr. Terry, the Argentine minister of foreign 
affairs, and the Chilean minister, Dr. Vergara Donoso. It 
was these two men who shortly before had written the pro- 
tocols of peace and disarmament. They were so pleased 
with the statue that they at once indorsed the plan, which 
had already been proposed, to make it an international 
monument on the Argentine-Chilean frontier. The initiator 
of the monument, Monsignor Beneventi, who happened to 
be in Buenos Aires at the time, and especially the Associa- 
tion of Christian Mothers, who had collected the funds 
necessary to pay for the statue, were delighted with the 
project. 

A few days later work was begun on the foundation for 
the statue. The site chosen was the summit of the Pass 
of Uspallata, midway between those giant peaks of the 
Andes — Tupungato and Aconcagua. The statue, which was 
the first one of its size to be cast in America, is of bronze, 
made of cannon taken from the enemy during the Para- 
guayan war. It is nearly thirty feet high and rests on an 
octagonal column of granite twenty-two feet in height. It 
holds a cross in the left hand, while the right is raised 
in the act of benediction. The sweet serenity of the face 
is admirable; its look is penetrating, while its lips seem 
ready to speak. 1 The complete monument has a height of 
nearly sixty feet. 

But it was the ceremonies which accompanied the formal 
unveiling of this splendid monument of international peace 
which gave the best insight into the deep religious senti- 

*A reproduction of this beautiful statue, offered by the women of Argen- 
tina, has been accepted by the permanent commission of the International 
Peace Conference for a place in the Peace Palace of the Hague. 

2G7 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

mcnt of the people of the two nations and which showed 
how sincere they were in their protestations of eternal 
peace and friendship. 

In April, 1904, a large concourse of people from both 
Chile and Argentina assembled at the summit of Uspallata. 
Pass. Among them were the leading representatives of 
the Church and the State, of the army and the navy. The 
Archbishop of Buenos Aires blessed the statue, after which 
he said mass in presence of the kneeling multitude. Salvos 
of Argentine artillery on Chilean territory and Chilean 
guns on Argentine soil sealed the kiss of peace which the 
archbishop of Buenos Aires gave the representative of 
the Church of Chile. Medals were struck which bore on one 
side the Christ of the Andes and on the reverse the symbols 
of union of the two sister republics. In the Argentine 
arsenal two bronze tablets were cast, one of which, in front 
of the statue, bears this truly Christian inscription: 



Se Desplomarazst Primero Estas Montanas Antes 

Que Argentinos Y Chilenos Rompan La Paz 

Jurada A Los Pies Del Cristo Redentor. 1 

How sad to think that the all-important lesson taught 
by these young republics of the Southern Continent has 
been lost sight of by the jealous and ambitious nations of 
the Old World, who are now engaged in the greatest strug- 
gle in history ! Had they more of the idealism and chivalry 
of the Hispano-American, and had they followed the ex- 
ample of the people of Chile and Argentina in submitting 

1 Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than shall Argentines 
and Chileans break the peace which they have sworn before the feet of Christ, 
the Eedeemer. 

On the tablet on the opposite side of the monument is an equally touching 
sentiment, viz.: "He is our peace who hath made us one." It is worthy 
of note that these tablets were the gifts of the Workingmen 's and Working- 
women's Unions of Buenos Aires. 

268 








Cristo Redentor 




Vineyard near Mendoza. 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

their differences to arbitration, we should not now be forced 
to witness the greatest of crimes against civilization and 
to see the progress of the world arrested for generations 
to come. 

The physical and geological features on the Chilean side 
of the Cordillera are, in many respects, quite different from 
those on the Argentine versant. As I sat on the front of 
the locomotive, during the greater part of the passage 
across the Andes, I was able to enjoy to the utmost the 
magnificent scenes which defiled before us in rapid suc- 
cession. The day was ideal. The weather was pleasant 
and the temperature, even near the cumbre, was agreeable. 
The sky was clear and the dazzling snow-capped giant, 
Aconcagua, blazed forth in fullest glory among his sur- 
rounding satellites like 

"The pillar of heaven, the nurse of sharp, eternal snow." 

Everywhere, in the broad depressions between them, were 
extensive glaciers and below them were glacier-born rivers 
which carried fertility and wealth to the valleys and plains 
of Chile and Argentina. Along the lateral margins and 
at the feet of these lofty ice-fields were dark moraines 
which, after comminution by the action of ice and water, 
were to supply the abundant alluvial soil of golden wheat- 
fields and purple vineyards. 

The valley of the Rio de Mendoza, below the famous 
Puente del Inca, on the eastern flank of the range, has all 
the appearance of the interior of a vast, extinct volcano. 
Everywhere are beds of lava and tufa — black, brown, yel- 
low and gray — and long streaks of dark sand and gravel 
which have come from lofty precipices on both sides of 
the river. At one place there is a group of black pinna- 
cles which are locally known as Penitentes, from their fan- 
cied resemblance to the notorious sinners in penitential 
garb. 

269 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

The west side of the Andes, along the Rio Aconcagua, 
especially the section below the Laguna del Inca, 1 is mostly 
of granitic formation. The valleys and glens are deeper 
and darker and the faces of the bare, somber ridges are 
steeper and more inaccessible than on the eastern flank. 
The upper part of the range, it is true, is on both sides of 
the summit so precipitous that, notwithstanding the numer- 
ous curves and tunnels of the railway, it was necessary to 
have recourse to cog-rails to enable the trains to climb the 
unusually steep grades. But what impresses everyone who 
crosses the Andes by the Uspallata Pass is the dizzy preci- 
pices and the fathomless depths of the gorges along which 
the locomotive threads its way amid 

"Crags, noils and mounds, confusedly hurled, 
The fragments of an earlier world." 

It was while contemplating these stupendous exhibitions 
of mountain grandeur which seemed to present an impassa- 
ble barrier, even to the most adventurous wayfarer, that 
I again and again marveled at the wonderful feat accom- 
plished by the Army of the Andes in so quickly and so 
successfully traversing the Cordillera in the face of seem- 
ingly insuperable obstacles. But the one of this famous 
expedition who was most frequently before me in fancy 
was the ingenious and resourceful leader who had charge 
of the artillery — Padre Luis Bertram To him, after San 
Martin, belong the laurels of this wonderful military tri- 
umph, and to him, next to his illustrious commander, must 
be attributed the victories which were achieved by the 
patriot army on the battlefields of Chile and. Peru. 

The testimony of historians and of everyone in the 

1 There is no evidence that any of the Inca rulers were ever near the 
bridge and lake named after them. But here, as all along the great Andean 
plateau from Aconcagua to Cotopaxi, striking natural phenomena aie called 
after them, just as they are frequently named after the devil in Europe and in 
other parts of the world. 

270 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

Army of the Andes, from the commander-in-chief down to 
the youngest muleteer, is unanimous on this point. 

In a communication to his friend, Pueyrredon, the su- 
preme director of the United Provinces, San Martin tells 
us that this energetic monk, who then held the rank of 
captain of artillery, specially distinguished himself in the 
organization, increase and conservation of the park of can- 
non, and that to his knowledge and extraordinary exer- 
tions was due the successful transport of the artillery over 
the craggy and precipitous barrier of the Cordillera. 
' ' Nothing could resist the tenacity of this honored official. ' ' 

The Hispano- American historian, Mantilla, declares that 
' i Beltran, whose tasks were the heaviest, precisely because 
he towered above all others in talent and inventive faculty, 
did not know the impossible. Everything yielded to his 
expert hand. His patriotism made him divine what he 
never dreamed of in his monastic cell. And thus it was that 
the Army of the Andes possessed the elements requisite 
to surmount the Andes and liberate Chile. ' ' 1 

About ten hours after leaving Mendoza we arrived at 
the confluence of the Aconcagua and the Putaendo. Here 
an Argentine companion at my side, pointing towards the 
valley of the latter river, exclaimed: "There is the way 
by which San Martin entered Chile!" And it was near 
the junction of these two rivers that the Army of the Andes 
fell on the Spanish forces like a thunderbolt and won the 

1 The same author, writing of this dexterous and energetic Franciscan, 
after he had crossed the Andes, informs us that "In Santiago Beltran repro- 
duced the achievements of Mendoza and gave to San Martin and to Chile, in 
the hour of crisis, what was most needed to enable them to conquer and to 
carry to Lima the victorious banners of Chacabuco and Maipo. How admirable 
was that monk at the head of the artillery of the independent troops which 
waged war in Peru! Four large expeditions enlisted, twenty-four cannon cast, 
myriads of projectiles prepared, arms without number, which he supplied to 
the troops, speak eloquently of his glory and of that of the patriotic army to 
which he belonged — a glory not only of abnegation and valor but also a glory 
of creative intelligence and of active cooperation of the people of Argentina 
with that of Peru in its political redemption." "Kegimiento tie la artilleria de 
la Patria. ' ' 

271 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

great victory of Chacabuco. Less than two months subse- 
quently was fought the decisive battle of Maipo which de- 
livered Chile from the yoke of Spain forever. 

The judgment of posterity is unanimous in respect to 
the importance of the passage of the Andes by San Mar- 
tin, not only as a great military feat, but also because of 
the influence it had upon the final result of the struggle 
for emancipation. Spanish historians speak of it as the 
turning-point of the contest between Spain and her colonies. 
In German military schools it is cited as an example of 
the importance of discipline in an army, and of the value 
of foresight and attention to details on the part of a 
general. 

"The passage of the Andes by San Martin," asserts 
Mitre, ' ' was a feat requiring greater strategy and skill than 
the passage of the Alps by Hannibal and Napoleon. It 
was unequaled until Bolivar repeated the exploit on the 
equator. If compared with the two former, it is seen to 
be a much greater achievement than either of them from 
its effects on the destinies of the human race. In place 
of vengeance, greed, or ambition, San Martin was ani- 
mated by the hope of giving liberty and independence to 
a new world. The passage of the Andes by San Martin 
resulted in Maipo; the passage of the Andes by Bolivar 
resulted in Boyaca — two decisive victories which liberated 
entire peoples from foreign despotism. The passage of the 
Alps by Hannibal and Napoleon resulted only in the sterile 
victories of Trebbia and Marengo." 1 

As to the transcendent importance of the victories of 
Chacabuco and Maipo the verdict of posterity is equally 
unanimous. They were the forerunners of the great vic- 
tory of Bolivar at Boyaca, in New Granada ; of the decisive 
battles of Pichincha in Quito and of Ayaeucho in Peru, won 
by Sucre. Without the victories of Chacabuco and Maipo 
the banners of the patriot armies would not have floated 

1 Op. cit., Tom. I, pp. 630-632. 

272 



FAMOUS SCENES AND VICTORIES 

triumphantly over the battlefields of Boyaca, Pichincha and 
Ayacucho, and the emancipation of Spanish America would 
have been indefinitely postponed. Chacabuco was the re- 
venge for the defeat at Sipe-Sipe. Maipo crushed the spirit 
of the Spanish army in America and paved the way for all 
the subsequent achievements of the patriot forces from 
Lima to the City of Mexico. It was, so far as Argentina 
and Chile were concerned, the completion of the work begun 
in the Congress of Tucuman by its formal declaration of 
independence. 

Having in mind the honors showered by a grateful peo- 
ple upon our immortal Washington, one would think that 
the liberated nations of South America would, in a similar 
manner, have hastened to show their gratitude to those 
heroic men who had freed them from a foreign yoke. But 
it was not so. Quite the contrary. Belgrano, the first 
champion of Argentine independence and the hero of Salta 
and Tucuman, was allowed to die in obscurity. 'Higgins, 
the dashing lieutenant of San Martin in his march across 
the Andes and in his decisive battles in Chile, ended his 
days in exile. Sucre, who after San Martin was the ablest, 
as he was the most modest commander of the war of eman- 
cipation, was murdered by his own men when at the height of 
his fame. Bolivar and San Martin, after giving the best 
years of their lives to the service of their countrymen, 
closed their eventful careers in banishment. 

The republics of Spanish America have, it is true, en- 
deavored to redeem themselves by honoring after death 
those heroic sons whom they treated so ignominiously dur- 
ing life. Towns and states and provinces now bear their 
names. Statues are everywhere erected in their honor. 
Their praises are sung unceasingly in schools and legis- 
lative halls. Their tombs are adorned with wreaths and 
monuments of all kinds — theaters, museums, colleges, hos- 
pitals — keep their memories green. But when one con- 
templates these tributes to the memory of departed heroes 

273 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and recalls their tragic fates one cannot but repeat with 
Lowell : 

The hooting mob of yesterday 
In silent awe return, 
To glean the scattered ashes 
Into History's golden urn. 



CHAPTER XIII 
SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

In the form and physical condition of her territory, 
Chile is one of the most remarkable countries of the world. 
Although it is nearly three thousand miles long, its aver- 
age width is only about a hundred. It is like an immense 
ribbon which borders more than half of the western part 
of South America. On the east it is bounded by the Cor- 
dillera of the Andes, whose crest is broken by some of the 
loftiest peaks in the Western Hemisphere. Parallel with 
this is the lower coast range which seems to rise directly 
out of the waters of the Pacific. Between these two ranges 
is a narrow strip of land from twenty to thirty miles wide 
which constitutes the habitable part of the Republic. In 
the northern part of this narrow strip is a vast desert, 
in parts of which rain is almost unknown. In the southern 
section, on the contrary, the annual rainfall is no less than 
ten feet. But for the present the greater part of the wealth 
of the country is in the desert, a desert which is like a vast 
chemical laboratory in which Nature has, by her mysterious 
processes, evolved on an immense scale mineral riches of 
every kind and of untold value. In the southern half, 
however, lies the wealth of the future, for the nation as 
well as for the great majority of its inhabitants. 

But the form and physical condition of the country are 
not more remarkable than its history, especially that part 
of its annals which deals with its conquest and coloniza- 
tion. For Chile, like Peru, New Granada and Mexico, was 
the theater of the glamouring achievements of the Con- 
quistadores, and, as such, is a land of romance and chivalry. 

275 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

One realizes this particularly in the nation's capital, where 
there is so mnch to remind one of the deeds of those men 
of indomitable courage and steadfastness of purpose and 
supreme organizing capacity, who took possession, in the 
name of the King of Spain, of this remotest part of the 
South American continent. 

It is not easy, even for one who is familiar with the 
country through which the conquerors had to pass, to re- 
alize the difficulties which they had to surmount before 
attaining their goal. Their route lay through an unex- 
plored territory, where they suffered alternately the ex- 
tremes of cold and heat. They had to traverse the frigid 
uplands of Peru, to cross the snowbound Cordillera, to 
march over interminable sandy wastes, under a blazing sun, 
where starvation, with all its attendant horrors, was an 
ever-present menace. 

Among those of the Conquistadores whose names will 
always be identified with the history of Chile, two are par- 
ticularly conspicuous. These are Diego de Almagro, the 
associate of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and Pedro de 
Valdivia, the conqueror and first governor of Chile. 

When Almagro set out from Cuzco for the conquest of 
Chile, he expected to find there another Peru, a country in 
which untold wealth awaited both himself and his intrepid 
followers. But he had scarcely crossed the Andes when 
he was disenchanted. For, in lieu of thriving centers of 
population like Cuzco, Cajamarca and Pachacamac, with 
their temples overflowing with gold, he found only a vast 
inhospitable region 

"Scorched by the sun and furnace breath 
Of the red desert's wind of death — " 

a region which, to this day, is known as Pais de la deses- 
peracion y de la muerte, a country of despair and death. 1 

1 Ercilla graphically describes this arid desert — without a trace of animal 
or vegetable life — as a region 

"Do no hay ave, animal, yerba ni rama," 

276 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

After proceeding as far south as the river Aconcagua, the 
outlook became so hopeless that the hero in countless ad- 
ventures concluded to return to Cuzco where, shortly after 
his arrival, he met with a tragic death at the hands of his 
rivals and enemies. 

But the failure of Almagro 's expedition did not cause 
the Spanish to regard the conquest of Chile as an impos- 
sible undertaking. Far from it ! The difficulties and hard- 
ships which had been encountered by the gallant followers of 
Almagro seemed but to stimulate others of their countrymen 
to renewed efforts. For it was less than three years after the 
return of the first expedition when a second one, under the 
leadership of Yaldivia, had started from Cuzco on the long 
journey of two thousand miles over the bleak table-lands 
of Peru and the glowing sands of Atacama and Tarapaca. 1 

1 It is frequently stated that Almagro, Valdivia and their companions en- 
tered Chile by way of the Uspallata Pass. This is an error. Valdivia 's route 
to Santiago, after leaving Cuzco, was by way of Puno, Arequipa, Arica, Tara- 
paca, Copiapo and Serena. Villagran, Francisco de Eiveros, Eodrigo de 
Quiroga, Juan Bohon and Francisco de Aguirre and other Conquistadores who 
were among Valdivia 's ablest lieutenants and became illustrious in the con- 
quest of Chile crossed the Andes somewhere between latitudes twenty-two and 
twenty- three and, with their troops, joined their commander, some at Tarapaca 
and others at Atacama. Aguirre, who was the best lance among the Conquis- 
tadores who went to Chile, informs us himself that he crossed the Cordillera 
by the same route which had been taken by Almagro — passando el despoblado 
que paso Don Diego de Almagro. Cf. "El Conquistador Francisco de 
Aguirre, ' ' p. 45, note 2, by Padre Luis Silva Lezaeta, Santiago, de Chile, 1904. 
According to the eminent Chilean historian, Diego Barros Arana, the pass by 
which Almagro crossed the Andes is that now known as Las Tres Cruces, 
which is nearly fifteen thousand feet above sea level. Cf. his "Historia Jen- 
eral de Chile," Tom. I, p. 179, Santiago, 1884. One of the first, if not the 
first, of the Conquistadores to cross the Andes, by way of the Uspallata Pass, 
was Francisco de Villagra, one of Valdivia 's efficient lieutenants. This was 
in 1551, ten years after the foundation of Santiago. Vid. "Las Antiguas 
Ciudades de Chile," p. 154, by Tomas Thayer-Ojeda, Santiago de Chile, 1911. 

Although comparatively little known, Francisco de Aguirre was second 
only to Valdivia among the Conquistadores of Chile. As Padre Lezaeta shows 
in his valuable work, Aguirre was the conqueror and colonizer of all the north- 
ern part of Chile, and of a notable part of what is now known as Argentina. 
He was the founder of Serena, Copiapo and Santiago del Estero. He was, 

277 



THKOUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

After frightful hardships and deeds of prowess that are 
unsurpassed in the annals of American conquest, Valdivia 
and his heroic band, on the thirteenth of December, the 
feast of St. Lucy, arrived at the river Mapocho, where the 
capital of Chile now stands. The country at this point was 
fertile and beautiful and arrayed in all the glories of 
springtide. The flowers and foliage of the meadows and 
forests here were in marked contrast with the rocks and 
sand-hills of the treeless wastes in which they had spent 
such long, weary months. Here, then, on the banks of the 
Rio Mapocho where they could have wood, water and the 
fruits of the land, and at the foot of a small, picturesque 
mount of basalt and porphyry, they resolved to found a 
city which should be the base of their future operations 
in the land which they had come to conquer and colon- 
ize. 

The city was founded on the twelfth of February, 1541, 
with all the formalities usually observed on such occasions 
by the Conquistadores. The record of the foundation reads 
as follows : ' ' On the twelfth day of February, in the year 
one thousand five hundred and forty-one, the very magnifi- 
cent Senor Pedro de Valdivia, lieutenant-governor and 
captain-general for the very illustrious Senor Don Fran- 
cisco Pizarro, governor and captain-general of the prov- 
inces of Peru for His Majesty, founded this city in the 
name of God and of his Blessed Mother and of the Apostle 
St. James. And he gave to the city the name Santiago del 
Nuevo Extremo, and to this province and the adjacent 
territories and to the land which it may please His Maj- 
esty to be a government, he gave the name of the province 
of Nueva Extremadura. ' ' 1 

moreover, the ancestor of most of the families of these cities — el tronco de 
donde descienden casi todas las familias de estas ciudades. Ibid., p. 6. See 
also the Apendice of Lezaeta's work on "La Descendencia del Conquistador, 
Francisco de Aguirre." 

^'Historia de Chile, Pedro de Valdivia," Tom. I, p. 152-53, by Crescente 
Errazuriz, Santiago de Chile, 1911. 

278 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTEEMO 

It would have been difficult for Valdivia to have selected 
a more beautiful site for his nascent city or one which 
possessed greater strategical value. His choice showed 
that he had the eye of an artist as well as the skill of a 
successful commander. In beauty of location and environ- 
ment, Santiago is surpassed in South America only by 
matchless Eio de Janeiro. Like Quito, Bogota and Caracas, 
it stands at the foot of a lofty mountain range and domi- 
nates a broad and fertile plain. But, considering it as a 
center of defense, as well as a place of magnificent scenic 
attractions, its site more nearly resembles that of Cuzco, 
the famous capital of the Inca Empire. Probably it was 
because this place, with its natural fortress of volcanic rock, 
possessed many of the advantages of Cuzco, with its im- 
pregnable Sacsahuaman, that Valdivia chose it as the site 
for the capital of the country he purposed to conquer. 

The name given the city was that of the patron saint 
of Spain, a name dear to all Spaniards and one bestowed 
on many towns and cities in Spanish America. The appel- 
lation, Nueva Extremadura, of the country itself was in 
honor of Valdivia 's birthplace, the province of Estrema- 
clura in Spain. And the rocky eminence, which was for a 
long time to serve as a place of refuge during the wars 
with the Indians, was named Santa Lucia, a name it still 
bears, because it was on this saint's feast day that Valdivia 
and his intrepid companions pitched their tents on its pro- 
tecting summit. 1 

The general plan of Santiago is like that of all Spanish- 
American cities. The streets cross one another at right 
angles and all the homes of the people are provided with 

1 "Don Eamon Briseno, en sus efemerides, avanza la idea, mui plausible 
en verdad, de que los conquistadores debieron llegar al valle del Mapocho el 
dia 13 de Diciembre, fiesta de Santa Lucia, i que tal vez con el objeto de 
eommemorar tal aniversario erijio Fernandez de Alderete una ermita en honor 
de aquella Santa, al pie del cerro conocido hasta hoi con ese nombre. ' ' ' ' Los 
Conquistadores de Chile," p. 23, note 2, by Tomas Thayer-Ojeda, Santiago 
de Chile, 1910. 

279 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

one or more patios. In spite of the frequency of earth- 
quakes, some of which are quite severe, there are many 
imposing structures, both public and private. Some of the 
residences of the aristocracy are very sumptuous and lux- 
uriously furnished. Many of them, indeed, compare fa- 
vorably with the most superb homes of our millionaires 
in New York and Philadelphia, Probably one of the most 
attractive of recent buildings is the Palace of Fine Arts, 
inaugurated in 1870. It is not too much to say that, in 
architectural beauty, it far surpasses any similar structure 
in the United States. 

Among other notable edifices is the municipal theater. 
Although inferior in size and architectural excellence to 
the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires and the Teatro Municipal 
of Eio de Janeiro, it is, nevertheless, quite worthy of the 
leading metropolis of western South America — a city which 
will soon count a half -million inhabitants. It was in this 
commodious building that Colonel Eoosevelt gave his chief 
discourses on Progressive Democracy. Each time he spoke 
the vast structure was filled with a most enthusiastic audi- 
ence. But it was in his last address here that he scored 
his greatest oratorical triumph south of the equator. On 
this occasion he discussed, among other topics, certain 
questions connected with the building of the Panama Canal. 
A combination of circumstances had made it necessary for 
him to explain his action in a matter which has so 
frequently been misunderstood, and often grossly mis- 
represented. 

As soon as he began to advert to the subject, everyone 
was attention, and the silence that prevailed was almost 
painful. The large auditorium in which he spoke seemed to 
be surcharged with electricity and everyone appeared to 
be prepared for a shock or an explosion. Everything — 
the environment, the speaker, the subject, the great histo- 
rical event under review — was dramatic to a degree, and 
everyone felt that it was dramatic. The audience felt, too ? 

280 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTEEMO 

that it was listening to the man who, more than any other, 
had made history in Panama and who could, in a few words, 
tell them a story of compelling interest. And he did not 
disappoint them. Speaking deliberately, but certain of his 
ground, he soon had his audience under the spell of his 
burning eloquence. And, as he proceeded with his state- 
ment of the case, he was greeted with round after round 
of applause. Those who were at first only mildly inter- 
ested were soon thoroughly convinced of the uprightness 
of his position, while those who had been wont to denounce 
were heard to commend and indorse. 

Then came a burst of eloquence such as I have rarely, 
if ever, heard equaled. 

Vibrating with suppressed emotion, the orator declared 
with impassioned word, gesture and intonation that thrilled 
everyone in the vast audience : " I love peace, but it is be- 
cause I love justice and not because I am afraid of war. I 
took the action I did in Panama because to have acted other- 
wise would have been both weak and wicked. I would have 
taken that action no matter what power had stood in the 
way. What I did was in the interest of all the world, and 
was particularly in the interests of Chile and of certain 
other South American countries. It was in accordance with 
the highest and strictest dictates of justice. If it were a 
matter to do over again, I would act precisely and exactly 
as I in very fact did act." 

The effect was electrical, and the last statement, par- 
ticularly, brought the audience to its feet. They felt, as 
never before, the power, the intrepidity, the determination 
of the man who was addressing them; and they felt, too, 
that this power and intrepidity and determination were 
based on equity and justice. If among those who heard 
this masterly speech there were still any who had mis- 
givings about the legality or the equity of the Panama 
proceedings, they were not to be found. The Colonel had 
appealed to their judgment and their sense of fairness, and 

281 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

his words extorted not only admiration, but also con- 
viction and approval. 

Some of the avenues of the city are quite beautiful, while 
two of its parks are really superb. Of all the thorough- 
fares, the most attractive by far is the one which rejoices 
in the charming and sonorous designation, Avenida de las 
Delicias. It is more than three hundred feet wide and runs 
from one end of the city to the other. It is liberally pro- 
vided with shade trees and adorned with statues, some of 
which have considerable artistic merit. On both sides there 
are magnificent public and private buildings, among which 
are many of the palatial homes of the leading families of 
the city. Here one will find superb mansions of Floren- 
tine and Venetian architecture beside structures which 
are of Moorish or French Renaissance. 

The two parks, which one will always return to with 
renewed pleasure, are the Quinta Normal and the Parque 
Cousino. In the first named there is a museum and a botan- 
ical garden, both of which are well worth visiting. The 
Parque Cousino, consisting of several hundred acres, is 
due to the munificence of the late multi-millionaire, Don 
Luis Cousino, whose wife, Seiiora Isadora Cousino, was the 
richest woman in Chile, if not in South America. Before 
her marriage she possessed immense wealth, but after mar- 
rying one of the richest men in the Republic, who at his 
death willed her all his millions, her fortune was colossal. 
She had immense interests in real estate, mines, herds, rail- 
roads and steamships, and was reputed by her countrymen 
to be the wealthiest woman in the world. Her palatial home 
in Santiago and her gorgeous chateau in Lota excite the 
admiration of every visitor to Chile. Unlike our thrifty 
Hetty Green, Seiiora Cousino was noted for her extrava- 
gance and the pleasure she seemed to find in disposing of 
her enormous income. 

Cousino Park is a delightful pleasure-ground lavishly 
adorned with flowers, shrubs and trees of all kinds. In 




Santa Lucia. 




Art Gallery. Santiago. 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTEEMO 

the afternoon its splendid avenues are crowded with the 
smart equipages of the wealth and fashion of the city, while 
its greenswards and inviting groves are musical with bright 
and happy children. The Parque Cousiiio is to Santiago 
what Palermo is to Buenos Aires, and what Central Park 
is to New York. 

But by far the most fascinating spot in the metropolis 
is the famous Cerrito de Santa Lucia. From its summit 
one has views that are surpassed in magnificence only by 
those which greet the vision from the lofty peaks which 
stand as sentinels around the matchless bay of Rio de 
Janeiro. The historian, Padre Alonzo de Ovalle, writing, 
nearly three centuries ago, of the valley of Mapocho and 
the hill of Santa Lucia, says : 

"In this valley, two leagues from the Cordillera, by 
the side of the river Mapocho, God has planted a moun- 
tain of beautiful aspect and proportion which is like a 
watehtower, from which the whole plain is disclosed 
to view with its attractive meadows and cultivated 
fields." 1 

This singular hill, of volcanic origin, somewhat resem- 
bles in form and size the Acropolis of Athens. Before the 
arrival of the Conquistadores, it was to the Indians who 
lived in its vicinity an object of veneration. To them it 
was known under the name of Huelen. Valdivia converted 
it into a stronghold and here his brave little band was able 
to withstand the countless attacks of savage hordes until 
reinforcements from Peru came to their relief. 

It is now, however, quite different in appearance from 
what it was in the days of the conquerors. From a fortress 
of bare, somber rock it has been converted into an exquisite 
pleasance, gay with flowers, adorned with shrubs, trees, 
statues, and provided with terraces, balconies, belvederes, 
winding pathways, Swiss restaurants, summer theaters, and 
everything that can contribute to the pleasure and com- 

1<( Historica Relacion del Eeyno de Chile," p. 152, Rome, 1646. 

283 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

fort of the multitudes who frequent this most popular and 
delightful of trysting-plaees. 

Among the statues there were two that specially arrested 
our attention. One, in white marble, exhibited Valdivia in 
a standing posture and apparently buried in deep thought. 
On the base of the statue is an inscription which tells the 
passerby that on this spot the captain and first governor 
of Chile encamped his troop of one hundred and fifty men 
and founded the city of Santiago in 1541. No more appro- 
priate place could have been found for a monument to 
the memory of the illustrious Conquistador. He was more 
fortunate than his famous chief, Francisco Pizarro, for, as 
yet, Peru has not decreed a statue to the conqueror of the 
Incas, although there are not a few who think that the 
founder of the great Peruvian vice-royalty and "the per- 
sonification of an entire epopee" is justly entitled to this 
and even to a greater honor. 1 

Another statue, in bronze, the work of the Chilean sculp- 
tor, Don Nicanor Plaza, is a strikingly dramatic represen- 
tation of Valdivia 's famous antagonist, the Araucanian 
chief, Caupolican, who has been immortalized in Ercilla's 
noted epic, ' ' La Araucana. " 2 As I contemplated this noble 
creation, I realized, as never before, how well deserved 
were the Sr. Plaza's triumphs in the Paris Salon where his 
productions have long occupied a conspicuous position 
among the great chef-d'oeuvres of contemporary art. One 
could fancy that the poet Campbell had this statue of the 
dauntless Indian warrior before him when he indited in his 
''Gertrude of Wyoming" the forceful, graphic lines: 

As monumental bronze, unchanged his look ; 
A soul that pity touch 'd, but never shook ; 

1 See the author 's ' ' Along the Andes and Down the Amazon, ' ' p. 248 et seq. 

2 It may surprise most people of New York to learn that the much 
admired bronze statue of The Last of the Mohicans in Central Park is but a 
replica of the one on the Cerrito of Santa Lucia. 

284 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

Train 'd from his tree-rock 'd cradle to his bier, 
The fierce extreme of good and ill to brook, 
Impassive — fearing but the shame of fear — 
A stoic of the woods — a man without a tear. * 

The view from the pavilion on the summit of Santa 
Lucia is one of rare beauty and grandeur. Immediately 
surrounding the Cerrito is the city with its checkerboard 
streets, its palaces of the rich, its homes of the poor, its 
schools, its convents, its churches from whose towers are 
wafted the sounds of melodious, chiming bells calling to 
prayer. Farther afield are smiling gardens and vineyards 
and broad acres of wheat and maize and barley, while be- 
yond all these are green meadows dotted with flocks of 
sheep, herds of cattle and troops of horses, the joy of their 
vigilant caretakers and the pride of some stock-loving 
hacendado. Near the foothills of the Andes is the lofty 
conical peak of San Christobal surmounted by a colossal 
statue of the Immaculate Conception modeled after the 
much smaller one that graces the noble column in the Piazza 
d'Espagna in Rome. The Virgin Mother seems, on her 
exalted pinnacle, to be in the attitude of imploring bless- 
ings on the city beneath her, as the Christo Redentor on 
the summit of the Cordillera appears to be in the act of 
blessing the peoples of the two adjacent Republics. Then 
many leagues to the eastward — although, in the marvelously 
clear atmosphere, it seems but a stone's throw away — is 
the cloud-cleaving, snow-covered crest of the Andes — from 

1 Ercilla in "La Araucana, " in his pen-picture of Caupolican, tells us 
This noble youth was of the highest state; 
His actions honor 'd and his words of weight; 
Prompt and resolv'd in every generous cause, 
A friend to justice and her sternest laws; 
Fashion 'd for sudden feats, or toils of length, 
His limbs possess 'd both suppleness and strength; 
Dauntless his mind, determin'd and adroit 
In every quick and hazardous exploit. 

— Canto II. 

285 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

which, in all his majesty, rises giant Aconcagua like a 
watch-tower of the unwersfi,--^^ 

But if one would see at its best the sublime panorama 
which unfolds JLtS'elf before one's gaze while standing on 
the summit 6f Santa Lucia, one must ascend the Cerrito 
near the hour of sunset. Then the view of the vast moun- 
tain range is incomparable. Then the scintillating, snow- 
clad peaks rise heavenwards like pinnacles of burnished 
gold. But soon the gold shades into ruby and topaz, 
chrysoprase and sapphire. At the same time the foothills, 
with their bare masses of gray granite, black basalt and 
reddish-brown porphyry, with all the sculpturesque beauty 
and sublimity of mountain structure, have cast over them,- 
by an unseen hand, delicate veils of gauze and gossamer with 
ever-changing tints of mauve and lilac, emerald-green and 
Tyrian purple. The tutelary genii of Mercedario, Acon- 
cagua and Tupungato seemed bent on making me forget 
all past mountain glories from those of Misti and Sorata, 
Cotopaxi and Chimborazo to those of the cloud-piercing 
peaks of arctic Alaska and of the coral-girt islands of the 
Southern Sea. 

As I bade adieu to this magnificent landscape — bathed 
in the mountain air and the fabulous dyes of the setting 
sun — with its immeasurable distances painted in turquoise 
and amethyst; with the snowy crest of the Cordillera 
touched with the softest roseate flush; with the emerald 
plain at its foot veiled in a delicate, aerial fabric of azure ; 
with the towers and domes of the city suffused with a va- 
porous radiance exquisitely ethereal and translucent; with 
the stately palms of Santa Lucia tossing their graceful 
fronds in the fading twilight and vibrating to the bewitch- 
ing symphony of perfectly modulated light and color, it 
was easy to imagine the picturesque old fortress — where 
Valdivia in the long-ago planted the glorious banner of 
Castile — to be "sl fancy-thralling work of wonder, like 
some castle reared by Atlante's magic for the imprison- 

286 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

ment of Ruggiero, or palace souglit in fairyland by Astolf 
winding his enchanted horn." 

I must hasten, however, to state that, notwithstanding 
its attractive palaces and parks and alamedas and the 
scenic marvels of mountain and plain, as seen from beau- 
tiful Santa Lucia, my chief interest in Santiago, aside from 
her courteous, cultured and hospitable people, centered 
in her admirable educational and philanthropic institu- 
tions. I was prepared to find in them much of the high- 
est order of excellence, but the reality far exceeded all my 
preconceived notions respecting them and the splendid work 
which they accomplish. 

During colonial times education in Chile, as in other 
parts of Spanish America, was chiefly in the hands of the 
hierarchy and the various religious orders. The results 
achieved by the institutions under their control may be 
gauged by the achievements of the universities of Mexico, 
Lima, Cordoba and Chuquisaca, by the scholars they sent 
into the world, by the countless volumes on science, litera- 
ture, history and archaeology which are due to the pens of 
their learned alumni and, still more, by the exalted position 
in church and state which was attained by their stu- 
dents after they had left the classic halls of their alma 
mater. 

I have already spoken of Dean Funes, first rector, after 
its reorganization, of the University of Cordoba — the man 
who as a scholar, an ecclesiastic, a statesman, holds a 
unique position of eminence in South America, if not in 
the Western Hemisphere. I wish now to say a few 
words about another distinguished scholar and educator 
who was the reorganizer and rector of the national Uni- 
versity of Santiago, which he modeled after those of Great 
Britain. 

This was Don Andres Bello, who was born in Caracas, 
Venezuela, and' who, after completing a thorough course 
of studies in the institutions of his native city, became 

287 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the teacher and associate of Bolivar in the war of inde- 
pendence. He was the friend of Humboldt, whom he ac- 
companied in several of the scientific expeditions of the 
noted savant. Shortly after the declaration of the war 
of independence, he was sent as a representative of the 
patriots to England, where he remained in the service of 
his country for nearly twenty years. Here he was cele- 
brated as a poet as well as a man of vast and varied erudi- 
tion. From London he went to Chile, which became thence- 
forth his adopted country. Not long after his arrival in 
Santiago he entered upon the career for which his pre- 
vious labors had so well prepared him, that of an educator. 
After reorganizing the University of Chile, he became, in 
1843, its first rector, a position which he held for many 
years. He was the author of learned and valuable works 
on many subjects: on literature, philosophy and jurispru- 
dence. He practically wrote the "Codigo Civil Chileno," 
which subsequently became the model of the civil codes of 
various other countries of Spanish America. So great was 
his reputation for knowledge and rectitude that he was, in 
his later years, chosen as an arbitrator in international 
questions, as, for instance, in the controversy between Ecua- 
dor and the United States in 1864, and also between Colom- 
bia and Peru in 1865. ' ' The development of Chilean civili- 
zation," declares the noted Spanish scholar, M. Menendez 
y Pelayo, "is in great part his work. And when he died 
in 1865," continues the same author, "he left behind him 
the most venerable name in American history." 1 His 
death was mourned by the whole Chilean people. In 1872, 
the Chilean government authorized the publication of the 
great scholar's works, comprising twelve volumes, at the 
national expense. In 1881, the centennial anniversary of 

1 El desarollo de la civilizacion chilena es en gran parte obra suya. Fal- 
lecio el 15 de Octubre, 1865, dejando el nombro mas venerable en la historia 
Americana. "Antologia de Poetas Hispano-Americanas, " Tom. II, p. CXIX, 
Madrid, 1893. 

288 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

his birth was celebrated in Santiago with a splendor that 
did credit to the grateful and appreciative people of his 
adopted country. 

As I stood before the statue of this remarkable man, 
which greets the visitor as he enters the national library 
of Santiago, and recalled his achievements as a poet, a 
critic, a philosopher, an educator, a statesman, a juris- 
consult, I asked myself if our own country had yet pro- 
duced anyone who had his marvelous versatility and who 
had won undying fame in so many spheres of intellectual 
effort. The United States can point to many of her sons 
who have been distinguished in several branches of knowl- 
edge, but I doubt whether a single one can be named who 
was really eminent in so many and so diverse things of 
the mind as was Andres Bello y Lopez. 

And yet he, like his illustrious contemporary, Dean 
Funes, is practically unknown outside of South America. 
Cyclopaedias that give long accounts of comparative nonen- 
tities do not even mention his name. And to think that 
a man who has rendered such great services to humanity — 
a man about whom a literature is already beginning to 
form in Spanish America, as one began to form about the 
illustrious Goethe a century ago — should be ignored in 
a country like ours, which should be in closer rapport with 
the scholarship of Latin America than any other nation in 
the world ! 1 

To say that the University of Chile has developed along 
the lines indicated by its virtual founder is not only a 
tribute to the memory of Andres Bello, but also a tribute 
to the enterprise and zeal of the people of Chile in the 
cause of higher education. One of the best evidences of 
the ability of its teaching staff is the fact that the uni- 

1 Among the many biographies of Andres Bello, which have already ap- 
peared, the "Vida de D. Andres Bello," by one of his pupils, D. Miguel Luis 
Amunategui, published in Santiago, in 1882, is by far the best. It ranks with 
the best English biographies. 

289 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

versity is frequented by students from the most distant 
republics of the South American continent. 

But the National University is not the only institution 
for higher education in Chile that deserves special no- 
tice. I should ignore one of Chile 's noblest homes of learn- 
ing if I did not bear witness to the splendid work being 
done in the great Universidad Catolica which, thanks to the 
munificence of a number of wealthy Chileans, was founded 
in 1888 by the late Archbishop of Santiago, Don Mariano 
Casanova. Its magnificent buildings, which are unsur- 
passed by any of the numerous and superb educational 
structures in South America, are among the most impos- 
ing edifices in the national capital. Its teaching corps is 
composed of eminent men in every department. Many of 
them are distinguished professors from Europe. Others, 
especially in the faculty of law, are leading members of 
the senate and of the chamber of deputies. Its industrial 
and agricultural schools are admirably conducted, and, 
when the present program of its regents is fully carried 
out, its medical school will be a credit both to the university 
and to the nation. The people of Santiago are justly proud 
of this latest addition to their institutions of higher edu- 
cation, and well they may be, for it is not only an orna- 
ment to their city, but also an honor to the entire republic. 

Lack of space precludes my speaking of many other 
splendid institutions of learning which it was my privilege 
to visit. I may, however, be permitted to express my admi- 
ration of the admirable work done in the convent schools, 
especially those conducted by the Ladies of the Sacred 
Heart. This well-known community has nowhere in the 
world more zealous, more competent, or more enthusiastic 
teachers than those in charge of the two excellent academies 
of the Sagrado Corazon in Santiago. They are patronized 
by the best families of the city. Among the pupils I had 
the pleasure of meeting were many whose ancestors have 
left their mark in history as Conquistadores and heroes 

290 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

of the war of independence. And brighter and more ear- 
nest students I have never met anywhere. They were de- 
lighted to have me examine their work in art, literature 
and history, and, in truth, I was agreeably surprised at its 
quality and thoroughness. 

But I must say that the institution which I examined 
with most pleasure was the ecclesiastical seminary. The 
building, which is very large, is surrounded by enchanting 
beds of flowers and inviting groves of umbrageous trees 
and is an ideal place of study for young aspirants to the 
priesthood. And the course of study in this institution is 
not only thorough, but is admirably adapted to equip the 
young priests for their divers and important duties in the 
world as parish priests, missionaries and educators. 

The beneficent results of the thorough training which 
these young Levites receive in the seminary are manifested 
in the most striking manner in the present religious and 
social condition of the people. The churches are crowded 
on Sunday, with men as well as women. The throngs that 
fill the streets, from early morning until midday, on their 
way to church, have been likened to a romeria — a pilgrim- 
age. And these multitudes frequent the places of worship 
not to see and to be seen, but as a religious duty which they 
never think of neglecting. 

The traditional garb for women in Santiago, as in Lima, 
is the manto. This is de rigueur for all, irrespective of 
wealth or rank, when attending church. It is a large, 
square black shawl, which is worn over the head and shoul- 
ders and is gathered in graceful draperies about the body. 
Usually it is of plain alpaca, or cashmere, but not infre- 
quently it is beautifully embroidered silk, or crepe de chine. 
Nothing is more becoming, or more appropriate in church, 
and I am sure my readers will agree with a recent writer 
in regarding it as "a pleasing idea that all classes should 
thus appear garbed alike in the House of God, the Court 
of Heaven. ' ' The same writer playfully remarks that ' ' To 

291 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

see some five or six of these black ladies gossiping in the 
street gives one quite a curious idea, as of nuns broken 
loose." 

But in nothing is the influence of the Church on the 
masses more manifest than in the success of her efforts 
in the preservation of peace and in composing the dif- 
ferences between the aristocracy and the proletariat — 
between the roto — the half-caste laboring man. a descend- 
ant of the Spaniard and the Indian — and the great landed 
proprietor. 

Many people in our country imagine that Chile, like 
Haiti, is constantly in the throes of revolution. The fact 
is that there has been only one revolution in nearly sixty 
years. Indeed, there are few other countries that have 
been so free from internecine strife as Chile. This is due, 
in great measure, to the far-reaching influence of the 
clergy, which is always exerted in behalf of peace. Their 
untiring efforts, a few years ago, to prevent a threatened 
war between their own country and Argentine were, to a 
great extent, instrumental in securing that peace which 
was cemented by the erection of that noble statue of Christ 
the Redeemer on the summit of the Andes. 

It is only recently that socialism — especially in the great 
mining and industrial centers — has become a menace. The 
failure of socialistic agitation thus far is, in some measure, 
due to the absence in Chile of a bourgeois class ; for such 
a class would bridge over the wide chasm that separates 
the rot os, or peons, from the aristocrats. The quasi-feudal 
system, on which Chilean politics for a century has been 
based, is daily becoming less adapted to modern social and 
economic conditions; and the patriarchal habits of life, 
which have so long prevailed on the great haciendas, are 
sure, at no distant day, to undergo important changes. 
The problem confronting the statesmen of Chile is to have 
these changes effected without exposing the country to the 
convulsions of a social revolution. The question of capital 

292 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

and labor is also demanding attention, as is also that of 
trade-unionism, which has only recently begun to assert its 
power. 

Fortunately, the influence of the clergy on the laboring 
classes is so potent and so far-reaching that there is, at 
least for the present, but little to be apprehended from the 
propaganda of socialistic agitators. The priests of Chile, 
under the leadership of the venerable archbishop of San- 
tiago, Monsignor Ignacio Gonzalez Eyzaguire, make the 
study of social questions, and the instruction and relief of 
the poor and the laboring classes, an important part of 
their ministry. Through the agency of La Federation 
National de las Obras Sociales Catolicas, they have already 
accomplished wonders for the elevation of the submerged 
tenth and for the amelioration of their condition. In order 
that the clergy may be properly prepared for intelligent 
action in dealing with all social problems which may de- 
mand solution, special chairs of sociology have been estab- 
lished in the seminaries of Santiago and Concepcion, as 
well as in the Catholic University. Might not some of our 
ecclesiastical institutions in other countries do well to imi- 
tate the example of Chile in this respect? 

Through the courtesy of the venerable Archbishop of 
Santiago, who gave a breakfast in our honor, I was able 
to meet many of the priests and laymen who cooperate with 
him in all matters of social progress among the laboring 
classes; and truth compels me to say that I have never 
met anywhere a more earnest or intelligent body of men, 
or men more devoted to the uplifting of the poor and the 
lowly. While conversing with these learned and self- 
sacrificing men regarding their various activities as edu- 
cators, missionaries and social workers, I could not but 
recall the splendid tribute paid to them some years ago 
in the Chilean Congress by one of its ablest and most elo- 
quent representatives. In a stirring discourse, which 
still thrills every true Chilean, the gifted orator declares 

293 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

that: "the clergy are the honor of our country," and that 
"no other nation possesses a similar body of men who are 
more enlightened, more virtuous and more respectable. ' ' * 
This judgment is ratified by Prince Louis d'Orleans- 
Bragance, the grandson of the late Emperor Dom Pedro, 
of Brazil, who, in speaking of the Church in Chile, asserts 
that ' ' The Church has never been more flourishing nor more 
powerful than in our day. ' ' 2 

Under the guidance of such learned and saintly prel- 
ates as the late Archbishop of Santiago, Monsignor Mariano 
Casanova, who was the founder of the Catholic University, 
and the present metropolitan who is affectionately spoken 
of among his people as "The Father and the Apostle of 
Workingmen," the Chilean clergy could not be other than 
a dominant force in all that makes for the progress of 
religion and knowledge. In his zeal for the welfare of his 
people, in his interest in higher education, in his initiative 
and enterprise, in his broad spirit of charity, irrespective 
of color or creed, Archbishop Gonzalez is the same type of 
man as our Archbishop Ireland, or as the late Cardinal 
Manning. He has always been an ardent champion of 
the press, and places a high value on its apostolate. He 
is the founder of La Union which, with El Mercurio, is the 
most important newspaper in Chile. It is a daily paper 
and is published not only in Santiago, but also in Val- 
paraiso and Concepcion. To give an idea of the Arch- 
bishop's appreciation of the value and influence of the 
press, which he calls the pride of his country, it suffices 
to relate a characteristic incident. The thirteenth of Feb- 
ruary, 1812, was the centenary of the foundation of 
La Aurora, the first journal printed on Chilean soil. In a 
truly noble letter he calls on his people to prepare to 
solemnize in a worthy manner "an anniversary which is 

1 Don Carlos Walker Martinez, whose notable discourse has been published 
under the title El Liberallsmo ante los Principios Beligiosos en Chile. 
2 "Sous La Croix de Sud," p. 191, Paris, 1912. 

294 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

a glory for national thought. " He asks the pastors of 
parishes to address their flocks on the importance of the 
press and prescribes that at the exact hour, half-past six 
in the morning, when La Aurora first appeared, there 
should be a general ringing of bells in all the churches 
within his jurisdiction. 1 

In connection with the educational work of Chile, I 
should like to say something regarding the art and the 
literature of this progressive country. But a large vol- 
ume would be required to do even partial justice to these 
interesting subjects. I must, however, advert to the charm- 
ing classic of the soldier-poet, Ercilla, which led Andres 
Bello to declare : ' ' Chile is the only one of modern nations 
whose foundations have been immortalized by an epic 
poem" — a poem which Cervantes, in his Don Quixote, 
declared to be " one of the choicest treasures of the Castilian 
Muse." Several similar poems were written in Spanish 
America during the colonial period, but they are valuable 
rather as history than as poetry. Among them are the 
"Elegias de Varones Ilustres de Inclias," by the poet-priest, 
Juan de Castellanos; "La Argentina," by Padre Barco 
Centenera; "Lima Fundada 6 Conquista del Peru," by 
Peralta Barnuevo, not to speak of a number of others of 
far less merit. 

Not only is Chile unique, among modern nations, in hav- 
ing its foundation glorified by a great epic, but it is also 
unique among the nations of the New World in having its 
literary genesis signalized by so excellent a work as "La 
Araucana." Although it is a product of Spanish genius, 
it is nevertheless so identified with the soil which the author 
trod as a Conquistador, and with the intrepid natives whom 
he admired and sympathized with, that it would be a grave 
omission not to salute the noble figure of Ercilla, especially 

1 It is interesting to know that La Aurora was founded by a religious, 
Padre Camilo Henriquez, who through its columns rendered yeoman service to 
the patriot cause during the war of emancipation. 

295 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

when his poem served as the type of all those historical 
poems which were written in America or on America dur- 
ing the period of Spanish domination. 1 

Ercilla's great historical poem was the beginning of 
that traditional love in Chile for historical researches which 
was never more pronounced than it is today. For, outside 
of Peru, whose long line of historians is headed by such 
distinguished names as the Inca Garcillasso de la Vega and 
Cieza de Leon, there is no country in South America which 
can count more active and intelligent workers in the fields 
of history and archeology than Chile. Aside from such 
noted historians as Molina, Eosales, Ovalle and Olivares, 
all missionaries, whose productions belong to the colonial 
period, we have among recent and contemporary historians 
such eminent investigators as B. Vicuna Mackenna, E. Bar- 
ros Arana, M. L. Amunategui, Crescente Errazuriz, T. 
Thayer-Ojeda, Carlos Morla Vicuna, Valdez Vergara and 
Toribio Medina, the last of whom is doing for his native 
land what the late D. J. Garcia Icazbalceta accomplished 
for Mexico. It was this tireless and fruitful activity of 
Chilean historians that impelled the learned Spanish 
author, M. Menendez y Pelayo, to declare: "That there 
is not a corner in their history that the Chileans have not 
scrutinized, not a paper in their archives or in ours that 
they do not print and annotate. Chile, a colony of the 
second order during Spanish domination, has more ex- 
tended histories than that of Borne by Mommsen, than that 
of Greece by Curtius or by Grote. ' ' 2 The imposing ' ' Colec- 
cion de Historiadores de Chile y Documentos Relativos a 
la Historia Nacional" and similar collections which have 
recently been published by the Chilean Government show 
that this statement is in no wise exaggerated. 

The Chilena, like her sisters in other parts of Spanish 
America, is noted for her great interest in all works of 

1 Cf. M. Menendez y Pelayo, op. cit., Tom. IV, p. vi. 

2 Op. cit., Tom. IV, p. LXXXVI. 

296 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

charity. In hospitals and orphan asylums, in homes for 
the aged and in institutions for the blind, the deaf and the 
dumb, the Chilean woman shows herself indefatigable. She 
is ever ready to give her time and money for the relief 
of the poor and the suffering and is never happier than 
when looking after the helpless and the neglected. " Whose 
magnificent residence is that?" J asked my chauffeur one 
day, when we were passing along the Avenida de las 
Delicias. ' ' That, senor, is the home of the lady who is the 
great friend of the poor. I do not know her name. We 
call her simply La amiga de los pobres." A few squares 
further on, he pointed out another palatial structure and 
remarked: "That, senor, is the home of La Madre de los 
Huerfanos — the mother of the orphans. She takes care of 
them as if they were her own children. I have never heard 
her spoken of by any other name." And so it is every- 
where. The charming matron whom we met at a banquet, 
or a reception, in the evening, arrayed in the latest creation 
of Paquin or Redfern, and adorned with jewels beyond 
price, had spent the afternoon in her somber manto, in 
succoring the poorest of the poor in their wretched hovels, 
or in visiting the sick and the friendless in the hospital, 
or in the asylum for the aged. The following morning, if 
you rise early enough, you will find her in her manto, like 
a tanagra in mourning, prostrated before the altar in one 
of the many churches of the city; or it may be you will 
see her in her own private chapel, surrounded by the mem- 
bers of her family, preparatory to spending another clay 
among the sick and the helpless, or to bringing sunshine 
and happiness into the abodes of poverty and misfortune. 
Is it any wonder that these angels of charity are known 
.to the multitude not by their family names, but simply 
as "The Friend of the Poor" and "The Mother of the 
Orphan"? 

There is a marked contrast between Santiago and 
Buenos Aires. The capital on the La Plata is cosmopol- 

297 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

itan. The metropolis of Chile is national and its inhab- 
itants are thoroughly Chilean. In Buenos Aires it is 
difficult to find a typical Argentine. In Santiago it is al- 
most equally difficult to find one who is not a Chilean. 
There are, of course, a certain number of foreigners in 
Santiago, but their proportion to the native population is 
far smaller than in the Argentine capital. 

But in one notable respect both countries are alike. In 
theory they are democracies ; in reality they are oligarchies. 
A few hundred families descended from the Conquistadores 
and from the heroes of foreign birth who achieved distinc- 
tion in the war of independence are the rulers of the Re- 
public as well as the owners of the greater part of the 
land. The great world of employees, functionaries and 
small tradespeople are little more than dependents, or 
clients in the old Roman sense of the word. As to the poor 
rotos, who live in miserable conventillos, they are no higher 
in the social scale than the Mexican peon and have no more 
than Mexico 's peasant class to say in the administration of 
the affairs of the government. The absence of a third es- 
tate is a great drawback. And, until a bourgeoisie shall 
have been developed, the aristocracy in Chile, as in other 
South American republics, will continue, as at present, to 
be the dominant class and to control the major portion of 
the great resources of the nation. Large landed estates 
in Chile are as great a bar to true democratic progress as 
are the vast latifundia in Argentina, 

No account of Santiago would be complete without some 
reference to its port, Valparaiso. The two cities, in reality, 
constitute but a single organism. The same may be said 
of Lima and its port Callao ; of Quito and its port Guaya- 
quil. The puerto in each case is but the complement of the 
pueblo, or capital. In each case, also, it is the seaport 
which is the chief emporium of commerce, while the capitals 
are the chief centers of politics, of letters and of culture. 

As seen from the Pacific, Valparaiso resembles a vast 

298 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

amphitheater. A semicircular mountain range seems to 
rise almost from the deep waters of the South Sea. There 
is, in fact, but little level ground between the ocean's shore 
and the foot of the long chain of cerros — rocky eminences — 
whose sides and summits are covered with buildings of all 
kinds. Aside from its charming suburb, Vina del Mar, 
there is little in the appearance of the city to justify its 
name, Valley of Paradise. But to the Conquistadores who 
had seen little but bare rocks and arid deserts on their 
long journey from Callao to where Chile's great seaport 
now stands, the clumps of trees and beautiful groves which 
they found on and about the present site of Valparaiso were 
quite enough, in their judgment, to warrant them in be- 
stowing on the place the beautiful name it has since 
borne. 1 

Next to San Francisco, Valparaiso is, in wealth and im- 
portance, the leading port of entry on the Pacific coast. 
Most of Chile's import and export trade passes through 
this flourishing entrepot. And yet few cities have suffered 
more reverses and disasters than Valparaiso. During 
colonial times it was frequently attacked and plundered by 
English and Dutch pirates. Among these were Sir Francis 
Drake, Sir Eichard Hawkins, and Oliver Van Noort. It 
has many times been devastated by fires and earthquakes. 
In the appalling seismic convulsion of 1906, an untold num- 
ber of lives were lost, while the property loss, at a con- 
servative estimate, was not less than a hundred million dol- 
lars. But we could discern little trace of the last terrible 
disaster. Most of the ruins of the old buildings have been 
removed and their sites are now occupied by large and 
commodious structures. The march of progress was re- 

1 Although many reasons have been assigned for the beautiful name given 
to Chile's chief seaport, both the origin of the name and the date of the foun- 
dation of Valparaiso are still in doubt. "Tan pobre, " writes Thayer-Ojeda 
in ' ' Las Antiguas Ciudades de Chile, ' ' p. 61, ' ' f ue este puerto en sus primeros 
tiempos, como oscuros son hasta hoi el origen de nornbre i la fecha de su 
f undacion. ' ' 

299 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tarded for only a very short time. To judge from the 
present aspect of the city, from the throbbing life and 
feverish activity of its inhabitants, Valparaiso is now more 
vigorous and more enterprising than ever. 

An object of special interest to all North Americans who 
visit Valparaiso is a monument erected in honor of one of 
their countrymen, William Wheelwright. He was the fa- 
ther of the Chilean railway and steamship lines. . The first 
railroad in South America was built by him. This was 
in 1857. It extended from Caldera to Copiapo. He also 
constructed the line that was to connect Valparaiso with 
Santiago, but, through lack of funds, it was completed only 
as far as Lai Lai. He was likewise the originator of the 
Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which, after its organi- 
zation in 1835, was for a long time the most important 
steamship company on the west coast of South America. 

Even more famous as a railroad builder was Henry 
Meiggs, born in Catskill, New York. He completed the 
road between Valparaiso and Santiago which Wheelwright 
had been able to build only as far as Lai Lai. He erected 
a magnificent home in Santiago, where he and his Chilean 
wife entertained with lavish hospitality. But Meiggs is 
more famous for his railway achievements in Peru. For 
it was he who built the road from Mollendo to Arequipa 
and from Lima to Oroya. The last named is the highest 
railroad in the world. Meiggs, like Wheelwright, was, at 
first, on account of his daring and seemingly impossible 
projects, spoken of in South America as a dreamer, but 
he was one of those dreamers who was able to convert his 
dreams into realities. 

Like Buenos Aires, Valparaiso is a very cosmopolitan 
city. Many of the most prominent business men are for- 
eigners. Chief among these are the English, the French 
and the Germans. Until a few decades ago, the English 
had almost a monopoly of Chilean trade, and Valparaiso 
was spoken of as "A commercial adjunct of Liverpool." 

300 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

But this is no longer the case. A large part of Chilean 
trade has recently fallen into the hands of the energetic 
and progressive Germans. 

The reason of this is not far to seek, and I shall give 
it in the words of an English writer who deplores Britain's 
rapid decrease of commerce on the west coast of South 
America and who does not hesitate to declare that, "unless 
England wakes up and wakes up rapidly, the lion's share 
of it will undoubtedly fall to Germany and the United 
States." 

"The difference," he avers, "between English and Ger- 
man commercial houses in Valparaiso and the other cities 
in Chile is marked. The English employees do their work 
well and conscientiously, it is true, but they are prone to 
manifest a species of insular superiority, and they rather 
pride themselves, as a rule, in being profoundly ignorant 
of the people, the country and the language. Cricket, lawn 
tennis, polo and racing occupy their energies ! They never 
trouble to learn Spanish, unless compelled, because they 
only wish to make friends with their own countrymen! 
Germans, on the contrary, mix with the people, acquire a 
knowledge of the country, its history and social conditions 
and set to work to master Spanish. The principals, too, 
frequently visit Chile and personally settle terms in a man- 
ner that subordinates cannot. Is it any wonder that they 
are gradually acquiring control of Chilean trade? 'Made 
in Germany,' I find, is a phrase that has been an excellent 
advertisement for German merchandise. Traders now go 
direct to Germany for goods which they formerly bought 
through British intermediaries." 1 



id, 



'■ Chile : Its Land and People, ' ' p. 152, by Francis J. Maitland, London, 
1914. Mr. G. F. Scott Elliott in his recent work on "Chile, Its History and 
Development," p. 272 et seq., London, 1911, makes substantially the same 
statement, as do all other writers who have made a study of the question. An- 
other Englishman, W. Anderson Smith, is even more severe on his countrymen 
in Chile, when he declares that ' ' They have carried to the west coast of South 
America that spirit of miserable snobbery that all Thackeray's subtle analysis 

301 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

To counteract this "German invasion" where for years 
there was "practically an English monopoly of trade" — I 
use Mr. Scott Elliott's own words — Mr. Maitland makes 
a suggestion which, if not novel, is at least interesting. 

"A plea," he writes, "has been made for the better 
advertisement of England by more frequent visits of first- 
class British battleships to Chile. This is an excellent 
idea, for, although the government and the governing class 
in Chile are well aware of Britain's overwhelming mastery 
of the sea, it is well for the officials at home to remem- 
ber that trade follows the flag, and that there is nothing 
that brings home to the mind the superiority of British 
products so much as an inspection of that marvel of 
skill and manufacturing ingenuity, an English dread- 
naught. ' ' x 

In view of the intense and unceasing industrial rivalry 
and trade competition in South America during the last 
twenty years, this suggestion, if not original, seems to be ex- 
tremely chimerical. For experience in Chile, as well as in 
other Latin-American republics, has fully demonstrated 
that trade follows the loan; that it follows the quality of 
goods offered for sale; that it follows the efficiency and 
courtesy of the salesman ; that it follows a system of credits 

fails to make them appreciate, and that seems to be inseparable from the race 
and ineradicable." "Temperate Chile," p. 334, London, 1899. 

^bid., p. 151. 

The French writer, C. de Cordemoy, in referring to the preponderance 
of English commerce in Valparaiso, declares: 

"II n'y a qu'un point noir dans cette omnipotence britannique. C'est 1' 
Allemande. Les maisons allemandes remplacent peu a peu les anglaises. C ' 
est un phenomene qui se reproduit partout a l'etranger. Si 1 'invasion con- 
tinue avec l'intensite de ces dernieres annees, Valparaiso sera bientot un 
autre, un grand Valdivia, la colonie allemande du sud du Chile; Pour qui a 
beaucoup voyage le veritable vaincu de 1870, sur le terrain commercial, c'est 
1 'Angleterre. La preponderance politique de l'Allemagne lui a permis le 
developpement de sa puissance mercantile sur tous les marches du globe, et 
pour prendre le premier rang elle a evince les Anglais. Encore vint-cinq ans 
de ce regime, et la preponderance commerciale de la Grande Bretagne aura 
vecu." "Au Chili," pp. 23, 24. Paris, 1809. 

302 



SANTIAGO DEL NUEVO EXTREMO 

which is satisfactory to the purchaser; that it follows 
proper banking facilities; that it follows the flag not of 
the dreadnaught, but the flag of the rapid, well-equipped, 
well-managed merchantman. 

Recent commercial developments in South America show 
that these observations are true of trade with the United 
States as well as with Germany. Mr. Charles M. Schwab, 
the brilliant and enterprising head of the Bethlehem Steel 
Corporation, has just completed two super-dreadnaughts 
for Argentina, the contract for the building of which was 
awarded him in the face of the most resolute competition 
on the part of English shipbuilders. He is now manufac- 
turing the big guns for Chile's coast defenses. This con- 
tract, also, he secured notwithstanding the determined 
efforts made by his competitors to obtain it for the 
ordnance factories of Old England. But these two impor- 
tant contracts do not, by any means, represent Mr. Schwab 's 
greatest trade and industrial triumphs in South America. 
Hearing of a mountain in Chile — near Coquimbo — which 
was said to be composed of the best iron ore in the world, 
he immediately sent a corps of mining engineers to in- 
vestigate and report. Finding that the ore was in quality 
and amount all that it had been represented to be, he im- 
mediately determined to buy the entire mountain and, 
shortly afterwards, it became the property of the Bethlehem 
Steel Corporation. Mr. Schwab is now having a fleet of 
large cargo boats built for the transportation of ore from 
Coquimbo to New York. A few years hence the amount 
of ore in transit from his Chilean mine through the Panama 
Canal to Bethlehem will aggregate no less than two million 
tons a year. 

How much this latest achievement of Mr. Schwab will 
contribute toward developing closer trade relations between 
the United States and Chile is manifest to all. It alone will 
demonstrate, as probably nothing else, the supreme value 
of the Panama Canal and its great function in bringing 

303 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND , 

nearer to each other the republics of South America and 
the great Eepublic of the north. It will not only shorten 
time and distance between the two continents, but will also 
give the United States an advantage in commercial rela- 
tions which it never before possessed. 

And Mr. Schwab is sure to be followed by others who 
are seeking for profitable investments in our sister con- 
tinent. The natural resources of the republics of the west 
coast of South America are beyond calculation, and there 
is no reason why American capital should not take a lead- 
ing part in their development. The experience of W. E. 
Grace and Company, whose enterprise has been rewarded 
by fame and fortune, should stimulate many of our coun- 
trymen to follow in their footsteps. With the exception 
of the great American company just named, the English, 
Germans and French have so far had almost a monopoly 
in the commerce of Chile and Peru. The Panama Canal has 
put it in our power to control a greater part of the trade 
which has so long been in the hands of our European com- 
petitors. Never before were conditions for the expansion 
of our commerce, not in Chile only but also in the whole 
of the Southern Continent, so favorable as now. Shall we 
take advantage of them! This is a question which our legis- 
lators and business men should make haste to answer while 
the prize is within our reach, and almost within our 
grasp. 



CHAPTER XIV 
IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

Shortly after our arrival in Santiago we learned that 
the government, whose guests we were, had planned an 
excursion for us, in a special cruiser, to Punta Arenas 
and return. This would have given us an opportunity to 
see the marvelous scenery of Smyth Channel and the his- 
toric Strait of Magellan. But much as we wished to avail 
ourselves of this splendid opportunity offered by our gen- 
erous hosts to view the scenery of one of the most pic- 
turesque coastlines in the world, we were, through lack 
of time, obliged to forego what would have been to all 
of us a fortnight of unalloyed pleasure. I call special atten- 
tion to this part of the program of our munificent enter- 
tainers as it gives a good idea of the lavish hospitality for 
which the people of Chile are so famous. 

When our hosts were informed that the limited time at 
our disposal precluded our taking the long voyage which 
they had mapped out for us, they were determined that 
our journey through the great central valley of temperate 
Chile should, in some measure, compensate us for what 
we should lose by our inability to sail that part of the 
great South Sea which was first traversed by the illustrious 
Portuguese navigator, Fernao de Magalhaes, after he had 
so successfully solved "the mystery of the strait" that had 
so preoccupied Columbus. 

Our first objective after leaving Santiago was Talcahu- 
ano, the chief naval station of Chile. We were escorted by 
a number of distinguished Chileans who were to accompany 

305 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

us to the Argentine frontier, and who left nothing undone 
to make our journey pleasant and profitable. 

We had scarcely left the suburbs of Chile's fair capital 
when we found ourselves in a broad and fertile valley, not 
unlike that of San Joaquin in California. It was during 
the last bright, balmy month of spring. The meadows were 
carpeted with green and flowered with blue and yellow, 
white and red, of the most brilliant hues. Herds of blooded 
cattle from England and Holland, flocks of fine merino 
sheep, troops of splendid horses with a strain of the 
Arabian, gave life to the flourishing haciendas which spread 
out on both sides of the railway. Here were long avenues 
of poplar and eucalyptus leading to the home of a pros- 
perous hacendado; there were groups of thatched houses 
of the inquilinos who acted as herdsmen, or cultivators of 
the soil. Most of them were half-castes, descendants of 
Conquistadores and of Mapuche and Araucanian Indians. 
They are a hardy race, these mestizos, and, when properly 
managed and cared for, make excellent workmen. Their 
value to Chile will be realized when it is known that la- 
borers of the black and yellow races are not permitted in 
the country. For this reason all the work on farms and 
in mines — outside of that done by immigrants — is per- 
formed by the roto, the peasant native of the soil. 

Besides extensive fields of wheat, maize and alfalfa, 
there were everywhere immense vineyards devoted to the 
production of almost every variety of grape. Although 
the cultivation of the vine dates back to the time of the Con- 
quistadores, little attention was given to the development 
of the wine industry until a few decades ago. During 
colonial times the making of wine and olive oil in Spanish 
America was strictly interdicted by the home government 
as interfering with the long-established industries of Murcia 
and Valencia. Now the product of Chile's vineyards is 
surpassed in quantity in South America only by that of 
Argentina. But the quality of the best Chilean wines is 

306 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

far superior to anything found in the colossal bodegas of 
Mendoza. Some of the Chilean clarets are rapidly ap- 
proaching in excellence many of the famous vintages of 
Bordeaux, while not a few of the ports and sherries will 
hear favorable comparison with the generous wines of 
Spain and Portugal. 

There were also numerous plots devoted to the culti- 
vation of the potato. These had a special interest for me 
from the fact that Chile, as botanists are now generally 
agreed, was the original home of this important tuber. So 
far, in spite of the most careful investigations, it has been 
discovered wild in no part of South America outside of 
Chile. In the southern part of the Republic Darwin found 
it growing wild in great abundance and exhibiting remark- 
able vigor. But whether future research shall confirm the 
present opinion of botanists that Chile is the original 
habitat of the solarium tuberosum, there is one fact which 
does not admit of dispute and that is that there are no- 
where in Chile the large, mealy, delicious tubers which we 
have in the United States. 

The immense areas occupied by many of the haciendas 
of the central valley of Chile cannot fail to impress even 
the most casual observer. Most of them were the lands 
which were granted to the Conquistadores by Valdivia as 
a reward for their services during the conquest. To the 
lands were attached a certain number of Indians. This 
was the origin of the noted encomienda system which has 
provoked so much adverse criticism, and which, from mucli 
misunderstanding as to its true nature, has called forth 
undeserved strictures on the Conquistadores and their suc- 
cessors. It was essentially the Inca system of land tenure 
as modified by Spanish feudalism — a system which pre- 
vailed in Chile until it was abolished by the celebrated 
Irish governor, Ambrosio O'Higgins, a system which was 
the forerunner of the present inquilino system that now ob- 
tains to so great an extent in the Chilean Republic. The 

307 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

encomienda was in reality a trust, or fief, and the en- 
comendero, in return for the labor and tribute of his de- 
pendent Indians, was bound to protect them and provide 
them with Christian instruction. The encomenderos were 
intended to form a knightly class whose duty it was "to 
defend, enrich and ennoble the kingdom and to care for 
the Indians. ' ' x 

Most of the denunciations of this system proceed from 
lack of knowledge of the time when it was introduced and 
ignorance of the methods of government in Europe dur- 
ing the same period. 

It is unreasonable to demand that the Conquistadores 
in America should have adopted a different system from 
that with which they were familiar in Europe and which 
they had every reason to consider the best. They were 
soldiers and not philosophers. And soldiers are accus- 
tomed to transplant the institutions of their own country 
without instituting reforms. 

In the Old World, at the time of the conquest, feudal- 
ism still held sway, although in a more mitigated form 
in Spain than in other countries. The seignor exercised 
jurisdiction over the inhabitants within his dominions, but 
with the obligation to defend the country against its en- 
emies, to supply a certain number of troops at his own 
expense and to provide for all the costs of public adminis- 
tration of his own seignoralty. The vassal retained the 

1 The grants of encomiendas made by Valdivia to his followers terminated 
with these words: 

"Con tanto que seais obligado a sustentar armas y caballos e aderezar los 
caminos reales y puentes que hubiere en los terminos de los dichos nuestros 
caciques 6 cercanos como os conviniese e os cupiere en suerte, e que dejeis a, los 
caciques principales sus mujeres e hijos e los otros indios de su servicio, e los 
adoctrineis e los enseiieis en los cosas de nuestra Santa Fe Catolica, e habiendo 
religiosos en la ciudad traigais ante ellos los hijos del cacique para que sean 
asi mismo instruidos en las cosas de nuestra religion cristiana, e si asi no lo 
hicieredes, cargue sobre vuestra conciencia y no sobre la de S. M. e mia; que 
en su real nombre vos los encomiendo. ' ' Quoted in Lezaeta's "Francisco de 
Aguirre, " p 67. 

308 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

ownership of his land, but with the obligation of tribute 
either in money or in kind to his overlord, and an acknowl- 
edgment of his jurisdiction. 

This was the form of government which the Conquis- 
tadores strove to introduce into America. Valdivia prided 
himself on his paternal treatment of the conquered race 
and had a care not to deprive the Indians of the lands 
which they actually occupied. For the encomienda did not 
give the encomendero a right to such lands. They were, 
however, frequently purchased from the Indians at a. good 
price. When awarding encomiendas to his soldiers, Val- 
divia gave them only terrenos vacos, that is, lands without 
an owner. As the indigenous population was small in com- 
parison to the great extent of territory, and as the lands 
actually cultivated by the natives were of very restricted 
area, there was a surplus of vacant lands for the Spaniards, 
without appropriating those which were occupied by the 
aborigines. 

Considering, then, the dominant ideas in Spain, as well 
as in other parts of Europe during the sixteenth century, 
respecting feudalism, it is difficult to see how the Spaniards 
could have improved on the form of government which they 
introduced into South America. To the credit of Valdivia 
and his successors, it must be said that they were always 
interested in the perpetuation of the indigenous races, and 
devised suitable measures for the attainment of so worthy 
an object. These measures were approved by the viceroy 
of Peru and by the Kings of Spain, who left nothing undone 
to protect the lives and property of the Indians, and this 
at a time, be it remembered, when our New England col- 
onists were doing everything in their power to exterminate 
the red man in the most brutal manner. 

The Indians of the encomiendas were, it is true, obliged 
to work. Women, however, boys under eighteen and men 
over fifty were excused from enforced labor. More than 
this, those who labored received some salary, and they were 

309 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

allowed, moreover, the necessary time for planting and cul- 
tivating their own fields. Even those engaged in the placer 
mines had, by special regulation, the right to retain for 
their own use all the gold which they might find during 
one day of each week. 1 

Nor is this all. Not only were the encomiendas far 
from being the diabolical institutions they are so frequently 
pictured to have been, but the encomenderos themselves 
were not, as a class, the ignorant and heartless men that 
so many writers represent them to have been. I refer 
now particularly to the encomenderos among the early 
Conquistadores of Chile. Thanks to the indefatigable la- 
bors of recent investigators — especially in Chile — and their 
bringing to light precious documents, long buried and for- 
gotten in old archives in Spain and in her former dependen- 
cies in America, we are now able to rectify numerous errors 
respecting both men and institutions of early colonial times. 
Many of these errors, it is now discovered, were due to mis- 
leading, verbal reports, or to local passions and jealousies 
against which certain of the early chroniclers were not 
sufficiently guarded. 

As a result of these exhaustive and conscientious re- 
searches, it is now possible to rewrite, with more approxi- 
mation to truth, the lives of some of the most illustrious 
of the Conquistadores, about whom, until recently, but little 
was known outside of their participation in some of the 
more notable events of the conquest. We find that many 
of the Conquistadores, whom we have been wont to re- 
gard as simple adventurers — as ignorant as they were 
vicious — were, in reality, men of noble qualities, both in- 
tellectual and moral. We learn that they were skillful cap- 
tains in the wars of Italy and Flanders, in which they 
served under the banners of the most renowned generals 
of their century; that, far from being the offscourings of 
society, and refugees from justice, as were not a few of 

1 Cf. "El Conquistador, Francisco de Aguirre, " p. 68, ut. sup. 

310 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

those who made their way to Cuba, Espahola and the Span- 
ish Main, during the time of Columbus, the companions of 
Valdivia, not to speak of Conquistadores in other parts of 
the New World, were scions of some of the most illustrious 
families of Spain, men who had disposed of their inherited 
possessions in the land of their birth in order to seek for- 
tune and glory beyond the seas. In view of this recently 
acquired knowledge, a distinguished Chilean writer does 
not hesitate to declare that nearly all the Conquistadores 
of Chile were not only men of good family, but also men of 
some education — "los Conquistadores de Chile casi todos 
at par que hidalgos, (eran) hombres de alguna instruc- 
cion. " x 

On our way to Talcahuano we crossed, among other 
rivers, one which is quite famous in Chilean history. This 
was the Rio Maule. It marked the extreme southern bound- 
ary of the great Inca empire. 2 I was particularly glad to see 
this river, for I then felt that, after many and long pere- 
grinations, I had, at last, reached the southernmost border 
of Inca territory, as I had years before attained its ex- 
treme limits in the plateau of northern Ecuador and in 
the Montana of eastern Peru. I was then able to realize, 
as never before, the vast extent of the dominions of the 
Children of the Sun, and their wonderful capacity for gov- 
erning countless tribes, as different in language and cus- 

1 Don Joaquin Santa Cruz, "Problemas Historicos de la Conquista de 
Chile," in Anales de la Universidad, Tom. CX., p. 13, Santiago de Chile. 

2 The Conquest of Chile by the Incas is a matter of legend rather than of 
sober history. Nothing certain is known about it. It is generally believed 
that the Inca, Tupac Yupanqui invaded Chile and, at the head of his troops, 
reached the valley of Aconcagua. This invasion, it is supposed, took place about 
the middle of the fifteenth century. It thus preceded the arrival of the Con- 
quistadores by about a hundred years. Huayna Capac, Yupanqui 's son and 
successor, continued the work of his father, and, it is believed, extended the 
Inca Empire as far south as the Maule. According to Clements E. Markham, 
' ' The Inca Yupanqui was the greatest man the American race has ever pro- 
duced. " Huayna Capac was almost his equal, both as conqueror and as an 
administrator. 

311 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

touts as they were widely separated from one another. 
From the Maule to northern Ecuador is as far as from 
Philadelphia to Salt Lake. How the rulers in Cuzco were 
able to impose their will on the heterogeneous population 
which tenanted the vast area over which the Incas bore 
rule has always been one of the marvels of early South 
American annals. And when we remember that these di- 
verse peoples, although separated by snow-clad mountains 
and trackless deserts and devoid of all those means of 
transportation and communication which we now deem so 
essential for stable government, were, nevertheless, welded 
into a single body politic, the wonder grows, and we are 
compelled to regard these semi-barbarians with admiration 
bordering on amazement. No other government in the 
New World, during pre-Columbian times, at all approached 
that of the Incas in extent, or exhibited rulers who were 
at the same time so brave, so wise, so progressive and so 
humane. 

The port of Talcahuano, which we reached after a pleas- 
ant journey from Santiago, is the finest natural harbor on 
the Chilean coast. It is well protected and commodious and 
the site of the progressive naval station of the Republic. 
It is provided with an adequate arsenal and dockyard, 
near which is a well equipped and well conducted naval 
school. Through the courtesy of the naval authorities we 
were able to visit all these institutions. We were deeply 
impressed with the order and system everywhere manifest 
and with the capacity and efficiency of those in charge of 
this important branch of the nation's defense. From the 
time of Captain George O'Brien, who commanded the 
Lautaro — the first of Chile's warships — and who was the 
father and the first hero of the Chilean navy, as was his 
distinguished countryman, Commodore John Barry, the 
father and first hero of the American navy, the people of 
Chile have always been proud of their marine military 
force and love to proclaim its achievements. For its popu- 

312 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

lation Chile has now the largest and best-manned navy 
in the world. But Chile is not satisfied with her present 
naval power. She purposes to augment it by the addition 
of a number of submarines, destroyers and dreadnaughts. 
When these are completed, Chile's navy will be the strong- 
est and best-manned in South America. 

The Chilean naval officers whom we met at Talcahuano 
and elsewhere are a splendid body of men and, like those 
of the army, are intensely patriotic. The navy of Chile 
is modeled after that of England, while the army is thor- 
oughly German, even in uniform and equipment. The rea- 
son of this is that Chile had German officers for its military 
instructors. And so thorough was the work of the Kaiser 's 
war experts, that the Chilean army is now considered 
by military men to be by far the best in South America. 
Not only this, but in such high esteem have Chilean of- 
ficers been held, since the German system was introduced 
into their country, that they have been called on to assist 
in the reorganization of the armies of several of the South 
and Central American republics. Among these are Bolivia, 
Paraguay, Ecuador and Colombia. 

"Why," I inquired of a prominent Colombian in Bo- 
gota, "do you engage Chilean officers as instructors for 
your army V ' " Because, ' ' was the immediate reply, ' ' they 
are the best military teachers in South America. They 
have been so well trained by the Kaiser's men that they 
are now the equals of their teachers. Is not that a good 
reason for securing their services!" 

In most countries men are soldiers as the result of long 
and special training. The Chilean, on the contrary, is a 
soldier born, as the Gaucho is a born horseman, or as the 
inhabitants of the Pacific Islands are born swimmers and 
boatmen. His warlike character is an atavistic instinct 
which, apparently, is as strong as it was in the time of the 
Conquistadores. This, however, is only what might be 
expected of a people in whose veins flows the blood both 

313 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

of the warlike Araucanian and of the bellicose conqueror 
of the Moors. 

And yet these natural warriors of Chile are capable of 
a self-restraint that would scarcely be expected of them. 
This was well shown at the time of the strained relations 
between Chile and Argentina over the boundary question. 
A plan of campaign had been elaborated by the German 
General Kcerner, the brilliant reorganizer of the Chilean 
army, and the troops were mobilized and ready to cross the 
southern passes of the Cordillera preparatory to a dash 
against Bahia Blanca on the east coast of Argentina. At 
the critical moment, when the victorious veterans of the 
campaign of the Pacific were clamoring for action, the ad- 
vocates of peace, headed by the leading prelates of the war- 
menaced countries, intervened with results that were little 
short of miraculous. Instead of devastated countries, 
ruined cities, countless widows and orphans — all of which 
seemed inevitable — there arose on the summit of the Andes 
a symbol of love and harmony, a statue of the Prince of 
Peace and a solemn engagement on the part of the two 
sister Eepublics that war between them was to be taboo 
forevermore. 

The deep religious sentiment which was so instrumental 
in averting an imminent war between two neighboring re- 
publics is a distinguishing characteristic of the soldiers 
of Chile, as well as those of Argentina during the war of 
independence. We have seen how the gallant and chivalrous 
men under Belgrano and San Martin chose Our Lady of 
Mercy as the generalissimo of the army of emancipation. 
In a similar manner the Chilean army, during the war 
with the mother country, consecrated their arms to Our 
Lady of Carmel and, at the same time, proclaimed her the 
general-in-chief of the Chilean forces. It is a matter of 
record that before the decisive battle of Maipo they made 
a vow to their patroness, in the event of victory, to erect 
a temple in her honor on the field of combat. 

314 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

During the war with Peru and Bolivia — 1879-1883 — an 
image of La Virgen del Carmen held the place of honor on 
the admiral's flagship. And the veterans of this war still 
relate how, before engagements on land, the battle cry of 
Viva Chile was always followed by a fervent Viva la Virgen 
del Carmen, Patrona del Ejercito. It is not, therefore, as- 
tonishing to find the troops of Chile forming an escort of 
honor around the statue of Our Lady of Carmel, as it is 
carried each year in solemn procession through the princi- 
pal streets of Santiago. Nor is it surprising to the pilgrim 
to the Holy Land, when approaching the town of Haifa, 
to behold, on the summit of Mt. Carmel, a monument erected 
by the people of Chile to their patroness as an enduring 
testimony of their gratitude. What Santiago is to Spain, 
what Nuestra Senora de la Merced is to Argentina, what 
Jeanne d'Arc is to France, that is La Virgen del Carmen 
to Chile, the nation's patron, the inspirer of deeds of chiv- 
alry and patriotism, a protector and helper in the hour of 
battle. 

As in Spain and Germany, the spiritual wants of the 
army and navy of Chile are looked after by a special 
ecclesiastical organization known as a military vicariate. 
It was established quite recently, and Chile is the only 
country in America which enjoys this privilege. It is 
independent of the episcopate and has charge of the reli- 
gious services not only of the soldiers, but also of the func- 
tionaries and employees of the Chilean government. I had 
the pleasure of meeting several of these chaplains of the 
Vicariato Castrense and I found them all men of excep- 
tional zeal and intelligence, priests who enjoyed the con- 
fidence and respect of both officers and men, and whose 
influence and ministration have contributed much towards 
making the Chilean army one of the best disciplined and 
most efficient in the world. 

The bravery and patriotism of the Chileans are pro- 
verbial. As they are all soldiers by hereditary vocation, 

315 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

so are they all, from the humblest roto to the most illus- 
trious senor of the nation's aristocracy, animated by a 
patriotic ardor which neither party spirit, nor local jeal- 
ousies, nor individual interest can affect in the slightest 
degree. For this reason their spirit of nationality is 
marvelous, superb. 

During the riots in Santiago in 1890, one of the insur- 
gent rotos was shot twice by the police and severely 
wounded. By a strange good fortune he managed to escape 
to Valparaiso, where he sought refuge on a North Amer- 
ican cargo-boat. While still infuriated at his treatment 
by the police, he told his story to one of the crew, who 
expressed his sympathy with the poor fellow and referred 
to Chile, in which he had been so harshly dealt with, as 
"a dirty country" and "a rascally government." The 
sympathizing sailor had scarcely uttered these words when 
the roto had him by the throat, threatening to choke him 
for daring to calumniate dear, noble Chile. The spectators 
tried to calm him, but to no purpose. He demanded that 
he be allowed to land immediately, when he was at once 
arrested and barely escaped being . executed. He was a 
typical Chilean, whose motto, like that of his country's 
navy, was La Patria ante de todo y todo por la Patria — 
Our country before everything and everything for our 
country. Is it strange that such people should love "the 
panoply and glory of war, the stirring march and the mid- 
night bivouac," and that they constitute a nation of 
patriots of unflinching bravery and indomitable courage ! 

At a spot near Talcahuano, named Penco, Valdivia 
founded the city of Concepcion del Nuevo Extremo, which 
occupies almost as large a page in early colonial history 
as Santiago. No place, probably, in the whole of Chile 
has suffered so many disasters and witnessed so many 
vicissitudes. Frequently attacked by the Araucanians and 
devastated by earthquakes and tidal waves, it was in the 
terrible seismic convulsion of 1751 completely wiped out 

316 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

of existence. After this awful catastrophe the new city 
of Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion was built on the pres- 
ent site, which is about ten miles from Talcahuano. It 
is now a flourishing place and is spoken of as " the capital 
of Southern Chile." Like Santiago, Imperial, Villa Rica 
and Valdivia, it was founded by the Conqueror of Chile. 
Indeed, as a founder of cities, Valdivia almost rivaled his 
chief, Francisco Pizarro, who laid the foundations of the 
principal cities of Peru. 

At Concepcion we crossed the most famous river in 
Chilean history. This is the Biobio, which was for more 
than three centuries after the conquest the northern fron- 
tier of Araucania. The Incas extended their conquests as 
far south as the Maule, but there is no satisfactory evi- 
dence that they colonized the country so far southward 
as this river. Similarly Valdivia and his gallant lieuten- 
ants carried the banner of Spain full three hundred miles 
south of the Biobio, and even founded cities in various 
parts of the land which they fondly imagined they had 
securely placed under the dominion of the Spanish Crown. 
But they were mistaken. Their success was only ephem- 
eral. For the Araucanians, under the leadership of their 
famous chiefs, Caupolican and Lautaro, rose in their might 
and so completely razed seven of Valdivia 's cities that for 
three centuries they were little more than a memory. Of 
the seven cities founded by the illustrious Conquistador, La 
Imperial was the only one which saw the beginning of the 
seventeenth century without having been destroyed by the 
dread Mapuches. 1 

The Araucanians have well deserved the name of the 
rebellious or unconquered race. For the Spaniards had 
scarcely entered upon their career of conquest in the fertile 

1 The name the indigenes of Chile gave themselves. It means simply the 
people or the natives of the country. The epithet Araucanian, so long applied 
to the indomitable race of southern Chile, is derived from the Quichua word 
aucca — rebel. The Peruvians designated as Araucanians, Indians with whom 
they were at war, or Indians who had not been conquered. 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

valley south of Santiago when they found themselves con- 
fronted by the most hostile and warlike people they had 
ever met in the New World. The Aztecs, Muiscas and Incas 
were almost pacific and timid in comparison with them. 
The brave and hardy inhabitants of Chile proudly pro- 
claimed themselves as Buenos de la tierra y de las aguas — 
the owners of the land and the sea. They rose against the 
invader as one man, and even in the time of the Conquista- 
dores they were known as gente indomdble — an invincible 
race. They were, without doubt, better natural fighters 
than any native race in history. They were well described 
by the Spaniards as a people "with bodies of iron and souls 
of tigers." They might be defeated, but they never would 
surrender. With them, as with the Chilean soldier of to- 
day, their device was Veneer 6 morir — Conquer or die. 

"Had I a thousand lives," exclaimed an Araucanian 
toqui — chief — who died fighting a vastly superior force, "I 
would gladly give them all for my country and liberty." 
This was characteristic of the entire people. No race of 
men were ever greater lovers of liberty or made greater 
sacrifices for the land of their birth. Not content with 
fighting the Spaniards during their lifetime, they wished 
to continue the contest with them after their death. Be- 
fore the great Araucanian chieftain, Millalelmo, died in 
1570, he expressed a wish for the election of his successor 
who would continue the war against the invaders. He 
then ordered his body to be burned, that he might rise to 
the clouds and keep up, in another world, the war against 
the dead Spaniards whom he expected to find there. 

And these expressed wishes of the dying chief were in 
strict conformity with the belief of his countrymen re- 
specting the conditions of existence beyond the tomb. For, 
according to their view, as Padre Molina informs us, "The 
soul, notwithstanding its new condition of life, never loses 
its original attachments and when the spirits of their coun- 
trymen return, as they frequently do, they fight furiously 

318 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

with those of their enemies, whenever they meet with them 
in the air, and these combats are the origin of tempests, 
thunder and lightning. Not a storm rages on the And. >s, or 
on the ocean, bnt they ascribe it to a battle between the 
souls of their fellow-countrymen and those of the Span- 
iards. They say that the roaring of the wind is the 
trampling of their horses, the noise of the thunder that 
of their drums, and the flashes of lightning the fire of 
the artillery. If the storm takes its course towards the 
Spanish territory, they affirm that the spirits have put 
to flight those of the Spaniards and exclaim triumphantly, 
' Pursue them, friends! Pursue them! Kill them!' If the 
contrary happens, they are greatly afflicted and call out 
in consternation, ' Courage, friends! Be firm!' " 1 

This is not the place to tell of the interminable strug- 
gle of the Araucanians with the Spaniards and of the bril- 
liant achievements of these children of the forest when 
battling against the best-trained veterans of Europe; but 
a reference must be made, in passing, to the two chief 
heroes of the race, who have been immortalized in the 
pages of Ercilla 's great epic, "La Araucana." These were 
Caupolican and Lautaro. For Ercilla there was, in reality, 
but one chief — one supreme leader of the brave Mapuches — 
and that was Caupolican. Lautaro is the lieutenant who 
always acts under the orders of his great commander-in- 
chief. Even when Lautaro is on the point of bringing to a 
successful issue his daring campaign against the proud 
city of Santiago, the reader always discerns in the distance 
the imposing figure of Caupolican directing the move- 
ments of the hazardous expedition. The reason of this is 
that Ercilla never knew or saw Lautaro. The battles in 
which the poet himself fought, and which he has so graph- 
ically depicted, were against troops which were led by 
Caupolican. Hence all the resistance of the Araucanians 

1 ' ' The Geographical, Natural and Civil History of Chile, ' ' Vol. II, p. 82, 
Middletown, Connecticut, 1808. 

319 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

is pictured as being incarnate in this valiant chieftain. 
The poet adulterates nothing. He tells what he saw with 
his own eyes, and in so doing he tells the truth. 1 

According to Ercilla, and his poem is the basis of nearly 
all we know of the two great heroes, Lautaro began his 
meteoric career as a warrior when he was only a mere 
youth. He had been a palafrenero — horse-boy — of Val- 
divia, but, escaping from his master, he joined his coun- 
trymen who were righting the Spaniards. He was a born 
military genius and was only eighteen years of age — the 
age of Alexander the Great, when he took part in the battle 
of Chaeronea — when he began to display tactical skill and 
fertility of resource worthy of an old and experienced com- 
mander. Although pitted against the best soldiers of 
Europe, veterans in the wars of Italy and Flanders, he 
was so successful in his brilliant campaign against the 
Spaniards that he threatened to drive them out of Chile. 
Although a mere stripling and entirely untutored in the 
science of war, he successfully employed the crescent line • 
of battle formation which gave the English so much trouble 
in their conflict with the Kafirs. And, like Bruce at Ban- 
nockburn, he resorted to the ruse of having a large num- 
ber of women and boys with poles near the battlefield, as 

1 " In reality, ' ' declares Ticknor, ' ' the ' Araucana ' is a history in verse. The 
first division of the ' Araucana ' is, in fact, a versified history of the early part 
of the war. It is geographically and statistically accurate. It is a poem, thus 
far, that should be read with a map, and one whose connecting principle is 
merely the succession of events. Of this rigid accuracy he [Ercilla] more than 
once boasts; and, to observe it, he begins with a description of Arauco and its 
people, amidst whom he lays his scene, and then goes on through fifteen cantos 
of consecutive battles, negotiations, conspiracies, and adventures, just as they 
occurred. He composed this part of his poem, he tells us, in the wilderness, 
where he fought and suffered; taking the night to describe what the day had j 
brought to pass, and writing his verses on fragments of paper, or, when these I 
failed, on scraps of skins; so that it is, in truth, a poetical journal, in octave i 
rhymes, of the expedition in which he was engaged. These fifteen cantos, 
written between 1555 and 1563, constitute the first part, which ends abruptly j 
in the midst of a violent tempest, and which was printed by itself in 1569." 
" History of Spanish Literature," Vol. II, p. 549. Boston, 1872. 

320 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

if they were an army in reserve. It was this youth- 
ful warrior who was the conqueror of Valdivia 1 who 
was reputed to be the ablest warrior of his time in 
America — el mejor hombre de guerra que hubiese en 
America. 

North America can point to many notable Indian chief- 
tains, but to no one who was so distinguished for a long 
series of brilliant victories as was the youthful hero of 
Araucania, Lautaro. Until, at the age of twenty-two, he 
fell at Mataquito, while fighting for his country, he never 
lost a battle. With truth has it been said that he was 
"the most valiant, steadfast and determined of all the 
defenders of American soil, from California to Chiloe." 
A town and a department have been named after him by 
the Chilean government, and the story of the young hero 
and his ladylove, Guacolda, as sung by Ercilla, is one of 
the epic glories not only of Araucania, but also of the 
whole of Chile. Poetic justice seems to require that he, 
too, like his illustrious compatriot, Caupolican, should have 
a statue on Santa Lucia in the nation's capital. The sculp- 
tors of Chile will not easily find a nobler or a more inspir- 

1 Many stories have long passed current respecting the manner of Val- 
divia 's death. According to one account, the illustrious Conquistador met 
death at the hands of Lautaro. According to another, one of the toquis dis- 
patched him with a war club. Many have credited the tale invented by Marino 
de Lobera, that the Indians caused the death of their victim by pouring molten 
gold into his mouth, at the same time mockingly telling him, "Have now your 
fill of that gold which you have eagerly sought." Others still, elaborating the 
invention of Gongora Marmolejo, tell us that, after Valdivia was brained by 
a club in the presence of a large concourse of Araucanian braves, "his heart 
was cut out, the points of their arrows were colored with the blood, and then, 
being divided into fragments, it was eaten by the assembled caciques so that 
they might all have one heart in the struggle against the Spaniards." The 
last two versions of the conqueror's death can be dismissed as fables. Sr. 
Crescente Errazuriz in his masterly work, "Pedro de Valdivia," Tom. II, p. 
591, Santiago de Chile, 1911, arrives at the conclusion that "Valdivia met 
death in battle, or at the termination of it, like any other combatant, unaccom- 
panied by any special circumstance — fue muerto 6 en medio del comitate 6 a la 
termination de el, como otro cualquiera, sin circumstancia especial, breve- 
mente. ' ' 

321 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

ing subject for their chisel, or one that should have a 
stronger appeal to their countrymen. 

As to the place occupied by Caupolican in Chile's Val- 
halla, the opinion of the learned commentator of "La 
Araucana, ' ' A. Koenig, may be accepted as authoritative : 

"Historical criticism essays in vain to. diminish, even 
slightly, the importance of Caupolican. Its arguments, 
however specious, always collapse before the power of pub- 
lic opinion. The figure modeled in 'La Araucana' has be- 
come a part of the patriotic beliefs which are the patrimony 
of all Chileans. If Lautaro represents the graces of youth 
and the impetuosity of juvenile years, Caupolican is the 
type of the grave and prudent general who is skillful and 
energetic in the conduct of war and affairs. The Republic 
has baptized with his name one of its richest departments. 
Historic or legendary, created by Ercilla or by tradition, 
Caupolican is a man who lives in our hearts and in our 
affections as one of the founders of the Fatherland. ' • x 

A word, too, must be said about the Araucanian women, 
especially those who figure so prominently in the pages 
of Ercilla 's great epic. Their prowess was no less remark- 
able than that of the men, and they sought death rather 
than submit to defeat or servitude. 

The striking episode in "La Araucana," which depicts 
the last interview between Caupolican and his wife, Fresia, 
reveals in the most vivid manner the character of the 
Araucanian woman, as she has ever exhibited herself in 
the face of the enemy. The heroic leader had been be- 
trayed into the hands of the Spaniards, and when Fresia 
meets him, a fettered prisoner of the hated invader, she 
assails him with fierce invective and withering scorn un- 
rivaled in literature. 

1 "Historico o lejendaro, creado por Ercilla o por la tradicion, ello es que 
Caupolican es un hombre que vive en nuestros corazones i en nuestro carifio 
como una de los f undadores de la patria. " " La Araucana de don Alonso de 
Ercilla i Zuiiiga. " Edicion para uso de los Chilenos con noticias Historicas, 
Biograficas i Etimolojicas, p. 181, Santiago de Chile, 1888. 

322 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

When the unhappy wife beheld her lord, 
His strong arms bound with a disgraceful cord, 
Stript of each ensign of his past command, 
And led the pris'ner of our shouting band; 
Her anguish burst not into vain complaint, 
No female terrors her firm soul attaint; 
But, breathing fierce disdain, and anger wild, 
Thus she exclaim 'd, advancing with her child : 

''The stronger arm that in this shameful band 
Has tied thy weak effeminated hand, 
Had nobler pity to thy state exprest 
If it had bravely pierc'd that coward breast. 
"Wert thou the warrior whose heroic worth 
So swiftly flew around the spacious earth, 
Whose name alone, unaided by thy arm, 
Shook the remotest clime with fear's alarm? 
Wert thou the victor whose triumphant strain 
Promis'd with rapid sword to vanquish Spain; 
To make new realms Arauco's power revere, 
And spread her empire o'er the arctic sphere? 
Wretch that I am! how was my heart deceiv'd, 
In all the noble pride with which it heav'd, 
When through the world my boasted title ran, 
Fresia, the wife of great Caupolican! 
Now, plung'd in misery from the heights of fame, 
My glories end in this detested shame, 
To see thee captive in a lonely spot, 
When death and honor might have been thy lot? 

What now avail thy scenes of happier strife, 
So dearly bought by many a nobler life ; 
The wond'rous feats, that valor scarce belie v'd, 
By thee with hazard and with toil achiev'd? 
Where are the vaunted fruits of thy command, 
The laurels gather 'd by this fetter 'd hand? 
All sunk! all turn'd to this abhorr'd disgrace, 
To live the slave of this ignoble race ! 
Say, had thy soul no strength, thy hand no lance, 
To triumph o'er the fickle power of chance? 
Dost thou not know, that, to the warrior's name, 

323 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

A gallant exit gives immortal fame? 
Behold the burden which my breast contains, 
Since of thy love no other pledge remains ! 
Had'st thou in glory's arms resign 'd thy breath, 
"We both had follow 'd thee in joyous death: 
Take, take thy son! he was a tie most dear, 
"Which spotless love once made my heart revere ; 
Take him ! — by generous pain and wounded pride, 
The currents of this fruitful breast are dried: 
Rear him thyself, for thy gigantic frame, 
To woman turn'd, a woman's charge may claim: 
A mother's title I no more desire, 
Or shameful children from a shameful sire ! ' ' 
As thus she spoke, with growing madness stung, 
The tender nursling from her arms she flung 
"With savage fury, hast'ning from our sight, 
"While anguish seem'd to aid her rapid flight. 
Vain were our efforts; nor indignant cries, 
Nor gentle prayers, nor angry threats, suffice 
To make her breast, where cruel frenzy burn'd, 
Receive the little innocent she spurn 'd. 1 

The Chilean navy, with a rare sense of chivalry and 
poetic justice, has named its torpedo-boats after the 
heroines who have been immortalized by the soldier-poet 
who fought against their brothers, husbands and sweet- 
hearts. Among these names are the dauntless Fresia; 
Guacolda, the ladylove of Lautaro; Tegualda, the loyal 
spouse of the gallant young chieftain, Crepino ; and 
Janequeo, who, to avenge her husband's death, put her- 
self at the head of a company of soldiers, captured the 
fort of Candelaria, and, with her own hand, slew the cap- 
tain of the garrison. 

It is worthy of note that not only Ercilla, but also the 
chroniclers and historians who have written of the con- 
quest of Chile, are one in presenting the Araucanian women 
as models of valor and conjugal devotion. 

1 Canto XXXIII. 

324 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

Such was the valor and steadfastness of the Araucanians 
— the women as well as the men — that Valdivia was con- 
strained, in a letter to Charles V, to declare: "It is now 
thirty years that I serve your majesty. I have fought 
against many nations, but I have never witnessed such 
tenacity as these Indians, in Chile, exhibit against us. . . . 
Each inch of territory I have conquered cost me a hundred 
drops of blood and two hundred drops of sweat. ' ' 

And so great were the losses sustained by the Spanish 
forces in Chile that Philip II complained that the poorest 
of his American colonies cost him the elite of his captains — 
la mas pobre de sus colonias americanas le consumia la flor 
de sus guzmanes. 1 "This narrow strip of Chile," writes 
Senor Menendez y Pelayo, "cost more to conquer and to 
hold than all the rest of the American continent. ' ' 2 With 
fewer soldiers than Spain lost in Chile, Alexander, it has 
been estimated, made himself master of the Orient. 

When, therefore, Eroilla wrote of the Araucanians as 
a race: 

Tan soberbia, gallarda y bellicosa, 
Que no ha sido por rey jamas regida 
Ni a, estrangero dominio sometida — 

a people so proud, brave and warlike that they have never 
been ruled by a king nor submitted to foreign domination — 
he described them not only as the Conquistadores had found 
them, but as they continued to be for more than three 
hundred years after the death of their famous heroes, 
Lautaro and Caupolican. During this long period they 
were able to preserve their independence and to keep the 
Spaniards and Chileans of European descent to the north 
of the Biobio. And during all this time there was in Chile 

1 Cf . Cordoba y Figueroa, ' ' Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile y Doeu- 
mentos Eelatives a la Historia Nacional, " Tom. II, p. 29, Santiago, 1898- 
1907. 

2 Op. cit., Tom. IV, p. 5. 

325 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the strange spectacle of an i iperium in imperio. Indeed, 
it was not until the last quarter of the nineteenth century 
that the white man was able to secure a permanent foot- 
hold in Araucania, and then only through the acquiescence, 
not the subjugation, of its indomitable inhabitants. 

Since 1884 Araucania has been open to colonists from 
all parts of Europe. The majority of these are Germans. 
So numerous are they in the two southern provinces of 
Valdivia and Llanquihue that this part of Chile is often 
re r rded as a colony of the German Empire. Here they 
are as well represented, in proportion to the rest of the 
poi ulation, as are their countrymen in the three southern 
states of Brazil. But, although they speak the language 
and retain the manners and customs of the Fatherland, 
they are as patriotic Chileans as are the Germans in Brazil 
patriotic Brazilians. In Chile, as in Brazil, the German 
pioneers had to pass through long years of privation and 
suffering. But now, thanks to their industry and thrift, 
most of them have comfortable, albeit modest, homes, and 
constitute the best and most progressive element of the 
population. Many of them have become wealthy and con- 
trol the largest and most important industries of the two 
provinces just named. They are contented with the coun- 
try of their adoption and no more desire to become sub- 
jects of the Kaiser than do our German fellow-citizens of 
Chicago or Milwaukee. 

Tk3 number of Araucanians in Chile is variously esti- 
mated to be from fifty to one hundred thousand. They 
still retain much of the land. Part of this is under culti- 
vation; a pa~*t, also, is devoted to pasturage. Their rucas x 

1 The ruca is usual" a primitive wattled structure with a thatched roof 
extending to the ground. J J b "^ but one door and is devoid of both windows 
and chirrr /s. The smoke t the rude fireplaces, where the cooking is done, 

escape- from openings in the i-jof. Even in the southern part of Chile, where 
the rainfall is exceptionally j.eavy, the only floor is the bare earth. There is, 
indeed, but little difference between the Araucanian rucas and the bohios of 
certain Indian tribes inhs." .Sing the basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco. 

326 




■in unuiiiiiiiiiiflMMBl 

Araucanian Village. 








Araucanian Mother and Child. 



Araucanian Woman Carrying 
Child in Papoose Frame. 



IN FAMED AEAUCANIA 

are, for the most part, like the thatched huts of their an- 
cestors. They adhere tenaciously to many of their old 
customs and polygamy is still prevalent. But alcohol is 
doing among these brave people what neither the legions 
of Spain nor those of Chile were able to achieve. Contact 
with the whites is beginning to exhibit the same disastrous 
consequences as in the United States and Canada. Schools 
and missions have been established among them, it is true, 
but the results so far obtained have not been commensurate 
with the labor and sacrifices which have been made in their 
behalf. The Franciscans, especially, deserve credit for 
their efforts to civilize and Christianize these people of 
a heroic past, and, though they have great difficulty in over- 
coming the prejudices and animosities engendered by cen- 
turies of injustice and warfare, they are not without hope 
of eventually seeing their labors crowned with success. 
The Araucanians are as refractory to external influences 
as they are brave in battle, and this characteristic, coupled 
with their deep attachment to their manners and customs 
and traditions, will make a radical change in their mode 
of life and superstitious beliefs a slow and arduous proc- 
ess. But theirs is a race worth preserving. A people 
through whose veins courses the blood of a Lautaro and a 
Caupolica; who have been so instrumental in modifying the 
character of the Chilean of today and in making him unsur- 
passed as a soldier and a patriot, is a people that should 
be preserved and perpetuated at any cost. If modern Chile 
stands unrivaled in South America for the spirit and gal- 
lantry of her sons, she is probablv as much indebted for 
these characteristics to the heroic inhabitants of Araucania 
as she is to the chivalrous people of Spain. 

By a special arrangement of our kind and thoughtful 
hosts, a large delegation of Araucanians, several thousand, 
it was said, were to greet us on our arrival at one of the 
towns in the southern part of the Republic. But our train, 
unfortunately, did not arrive until long after nightfall 

327 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and we were thus deprived of the pleasure which was pre- 
pared for us. As we drew near the town we saw a large 
number of fires on a hillside, some distance from the town 
in question. "That," said one of our hosts sitting next 
to me, "is the encampment of the Indians. I fear we shall 
not see them, as we expected, for they never remain in 
town over night. They always return to their homes im- 
mediately after sunset." My informant was right. When 
we reached the town we learned that a large number of 
Araucanians had been waiting for us for hours, but hearing 
that our train was behind time, and would not arrive until 
long after sunset, they all returned to their encampment, 
except a small committee of chiefs who watched to greet 
us in the name of their people. 

We all regretted that it was impossible to carry out the 
program as planned. For, although we saw many Arau- 
canians during our journeying through Chile, we had never 
had an opportunity to see so great a multitude as had 
assembled at the place in question. They were, we were 
informed, in gala attire and prepared to welcome us in 
their own tongue. "You will hear some interesting 
speeches," a Chilean in our party told me, "for many of 
the Araucanians are born orators. Besides this, nothing 
affords them more pleasure than to be given an oppor- 
tunity of displaying their powers of oratory. ' ' 

I was aware of their ability as public speakers, and my 
disappointment in not meeting the Indians was enhanced 
by the thought that we should not again have such an 
opportunity of enjoying a type of eloquence which has 
been famous since the time of the Conquistadores. To 
compensate for this loss I afterwards took up my copy of 
"La Araucana" and read Colocolo's famous speech to the 
chieftains who had assembled to elect a commander-in-chief 
in the war which they were then waging against the Span- 
ish invaders. Nothing gives a truer picture of the Arau- 
canian warrior than this harangue which Voltaire preferred 

328 



IN FAMED ARAUCANIA 

to a similar one of Nestor's in the second book of the Iliad. 
As this noble discourse is not so well known in English 
as it should be, I feel I am doing the reader a favor in 
reproducing it as the conclusion of this chapter: 

Assembled chiefs ! ye guardians of the land ! 
Think not I mourn from thirst of lost command, 
To find your rival spirits thus pursue 
A post of honor which I deem my due. 
These marks of age, you see, such thoughts disown 
In me, departing for the world unknown; 
But my warm love, which ye have long possest, 
Now prompts that counsel which you'll find the best. 
"Why should we now for marks of glory jar? 
"Why wish to spread our martial name afar? 
Crush 'd as we are by fortune's cruel stroke, 
And bent beneath an ignominious yoke, 
111 can our minds such noble pride maintain, 
"While the fierce Spaniard holds our galling chain. 
Your generous fury here ye vainly show; 
Ah! rather pour it on th' embattled foe! 
What frenzy has your souls of sense bereav'd? 
Ye rush to self -perdition, unperceiv'd. 
'Gainst your own vitals would ye lift those hands, 
"Whose vigor ought to burst oppression's bands? 

If a desire of death this rage create, 
O die not yet in this disgraceful state ! 
Turn your keen arms, and this indignant flame, 
Against the breast of those who sink your fame, 
"Who made the world a witness of your shame. 
Haste ye to cast these hated bonds away, 
In this the vigor of your soul's display; 
Nor blindly lavish, from your country's veins, 
Blood that may yet redeem her from her chains. 

E'en while I thus lament, I still admire 
The fervor of your souls ; they give me fire : 
But justly trembling at their fatal bent, 

329 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICANS SOUTHLAND 

I dread some dire calamitous event; 

Lest in your rage Dissension's frantic hand 

Should cut the sinews of our native land. 

If such its doom, my thread of being burst, 

And let your old compeer expire the first! 

Shall this shrunk frame, thus bow'd by age's weight, 

Live the weak witness of a nation's fate? 

No : let some friendly sword, with kind relief, 

Forbid its sinking in that scene of grief. 

Happy whose eyes in timely darkness close, 

Sav'd from the worst of sights, his country's woes! 

Yet, while I can, I make your weal my care, 

And for the public good my thoughts declare. 

Equal ye are in courage and in worth ; 

Heaven has assign 'd to all an equal birth; 

In wealth, in power, and majesty of soul, 

Each chief seems worthy of the world's control. 

These gracious gifts, not gratefully beheld, 

To this dire strife your daring minds impell'd. 

But on your generous valor I depend, 
That all our country's woes will swiftly end. 
A leader still our present state demands, 
To guide to vengeance our impatient bands; 
Fit for this hardy task that chief I deem, 
"Who longest may sustain a massive beam: 
Your rank is equal, let your force be try'd 
And for the strongest let his strength decide. 

— Canto II. 



CHAPTEE XV 

MYTHS AND MARVELS OF MOUNTAIN, LAKE 
AND PLAIN 

In its physical aspects no country in the world exhibits 
such striking contrasts as Chile. In the north it is an 
arid desert, where not even a blade of grass is visible and 
where for years at a time rain is unknown. In the south 
the vegetation is of tropical exuberance and there is a 
saying among the inhabitants that it rains thirteen months 
in the year. North of the province of Tarapaca, we are 
assured, the last rain fell in 1819 — nearly a century ago. 1 
In Valdivia the annual precipitation amounts to nearly four- 
teen feet — more than a foot for each month in the year. 

The contrast between the inhabitants of the northern 
and the southern parts of the Republic is equally marked. 
In the north the population is composed almost exclusively 
of those who labor in the nitrate fields. Most of these 
are hard-working rotos, who have been allured from their 
southern homes by the high wages paid by the English 
and German nitrate kings. In the south — especially in 
the two provinces of Valdivia and Llanquihue — the domi- 
nating element of the population is German. There are 
now about thirty thousand Germans in the two provinces 
named, two-thirds of whom have been born in Chile. 

When the first German immigrants in 1850 arrived at 
the old town of Valdivia, the surrounding country was 
a wilderness. The government in Santiago knew prac- 
tically nothing about it, and the official immigration agent, 

lft A Short Description of the Eepublic of Chile According to Official 
Data," p. 41, Leipsic, 1903. 

331 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Don Vicente Perez Rosales, was obliged personally to ex- 
plore the country before he could supply the German colo- 
nists with the information they desired before settling 
in the country. Although three centuries had elapsed since 
the conqueror of Chile had laid the foundation of Val- 
divia, it was, at the time of the arrival of the Germans, 
little more than a small aggregation of low, isolated, moss- 
covered hovels. The condition of their occupants was 
scarcely better than that of their Araucanian neighbors. 
The women cultivated small plots of ground with plows and 
other implements which were fashioned out of wood whose 
working points had been hardened in the fire. Aside from 
a little wheat, the chief products of their toil were beans 
and potatoes. Wild apples supplied them with chicha, while 
the sea provided them with an abundance of seafood. 
Roads, there were none. The inhabitants lived from hand 
to mouth, and such a thing as the development of trade and 
industry was far from their minds. 1 

But no sooner had the thrifty and industrious sons of 
the Fatherland arrived on the scene than everything was 
transformed, as if by magic. Neat and comfortable houses 
were erected, trees were felled, land was prepared for culti- 
vation on a large scale, all kinds of industries were estab- 
lished, trade was developed, and Valdivia, from a miserable, 
neglected village, soon became one of the most prosperous 
commercial centers in the Republic. 

The subjects of the Kaiser love to call southern Chile 
ein zweites Deutschland — a second Germany. It is cer- 
tainly more deserving of this appellation than is the south- 
ern part of Brazil, which, as we have seen, counts so many 
thousands of people of either German birth or German 
origin. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult, when traveling 
through the provinces of Valdivia and Llanquihue, to con- 
vince oneself that one is not actually journeying in the 

x Cf. "Eecuerdos del Pasado," 317 et seq., by V. P. Eosales, San- 
tiago de Chile, 1886. 

332 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

dominions of the Kaiser. The language is German. Often 
it is the only language which the people one meets are 
able to speak. The manners and customs of the inhabitants 
are German. The homes are German, not only in form and 
structure, but also in furniture, decoration, and, above all, 
in the immaculate cleanliness which is so characteristic of 
the German hausfrau. The children are well-bred, neatly 
clad, and as active and industrious as their parents. They 
spend a good part of their youth in school and, when they 
attain manhood and womanhood, they are almost as well 
equipped for the duties of life as are their kinsfolk in the 
valleys of the Rhine and the Oder. 

Even as we speed through the country on the railway 
train, we find everywhere reminders of the fact that we 
are in a land that is virtually German. At the larger sta- 
tions men and boys, carrying large glasses of cool, foaming 
beer from the great brewery in Valdivia, cry out, "Glas 
Bier, gefallig?" Should they address a Chilean, they will 
probably put the question in Spanish, and politely inquire, 
"Una cervezaV at the same time holding the fresh, tempt- 
ing beverage up to the thirsty passenger at the window of 
the car. 

I say this part of Chile is virtually German. This is 
not an exaggeration. The Germans own nearly three- 
fourths of the land, and the amount falling under their 
control is constantly increasing. Everywhere one sees their 
well-cultivated farms and the large tracts of land where 
they have felled and burnt myriads of forest trees prepara- 
tory to the work of the plow and the reaper. There is no 
better wheatland in Chile than that which has recently 
been brought under cultivation by the enterprising and tire- 
less sons of the Fatherland. The soil is equally adapted 
to the raising of fruits of all kinds. Nowhere will one 
see finer peaches, plums, cherries and strawberries. And 
nowhere will one find blackberries in greater abundance. 

The blackberry bush, which was introduced into the 

333 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

country some decades ago by the Germans, is so luxuriant 
that it threatens to become as much of a plague as are the 
rabbits of California and Australia. They are found every- 
where — along the roads, in the fields, invading the yards 
and gardens. Nowhere have I seen them so large, so vigor- 
ous, so determined to take possession of all unoccupied 
ground. How to control the spread of this sturdy and 
prolific intruder has recently become a serious problem for 
the farmers of southern Chile. 

But not only do the Germans control the greater part 
of the small farmlands, but they have also gotten posses- 
sion of many of the large latifundia which were for genera- 
tions the property of old Chilean families who were de- 
scended from the Conquistadores. Some of these vast 
estates embrace more than a hundred thousand acres, a 
great part of which is made up of valuable timber lands. 
Until recently the lumber used in a great part of Chile 
was imported from Norway, Sweden, Vancouver and Puget 
Sound, but since the Germans have gotten possession of 
the large f orestlands of Valdivia and Llanquihue, they have 
developed the lumber industry like every other to which 
they have put their hands. Sawmills have been established 
all along the railroad and, at almost every station, one 
will see large piles of lumber ready for shipment. Before 
the advent of the Germans in Valdivia, boards and planks 
were so rare and valuable that they were used in place 
of coin as a medium of exchange. Now, owing to the rapid 
exploitation of the great forests of the country occupied 
by the Teutonic colonists, the lumber industry is becoming 
one of the most flourishing and profitable of this part of 
the Republic. 

A half century ago the activities of the Germans in 
Chile were confined almost entirely to agriculture, and the 
sphere of their operations was limited to but a small sec- 
tion of the country. Now they are found in all parts of 
the Republic and their influence is felt in the social and 

334 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

political as well as in the industrial and commercial world. 
Nor have the Chileans any reason to be dissatisfied with 
the prosperity and ever-increasing influence of the Teutonic 
element of their population. Far from it. They are the 
first to rejoice in the success and prominence of their 
German colonists and the German men of affairs who have 
contributed so materially towards making Chile what she 
is today. 

The following extract from a Chilean paper, published 
about the time of our visit, tells of the dominating posi- 
tion of the Germans in many spheres of activity. "Our 
system of education," declares the writer of the article, "is 
German. Our most distinguished teachers are German. 
Our electric works are German. Our military system is 
German. Almost the entire saltpeter zone of Tolo and 
Taltal is German. Most of our largest and best banks 
are German. Our gold reserves are deposited in German 
banks. When our people go abroad, they travel in German 
steamers. Necessary commodities of all kinds come to us 
in German ships. Our children play with German toys. 
German products predominate in our markets. Our peri- 
odicals are printed on German paper, or, at least, on paper 
which is brought to us by German merchants. I have, there- 
fore, said that when the day comes that another nation 
knocks at our door, it will find inscribed on it the word 
'Occupied.' " 

In Chile, as in Brazil and as in the United States, the 
Germans are not only among the best and the most indus- 
trious citizens, but also the most loyal citizens of the land 
of their adoption. They retain, it is true, the manners and 
customs of the Fatherland. They are proud of its tradi- 
tions, its art, its literature, its science, its contributions 
to social and economic progress, its great poets and states- 
men and heroes ; but they are as thoroughly and devotedly 
Chilean as are their countrymen in the United States thor- 
oughly and devotedly Americans. They may, indeed, cling 

335 



\ 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

to the language of their fathers, and their children, even, 
may be unable to speak any other in certain colonies in 
the southern part of the Republic, but they are, neverthe- 
less, as wholly and unreservedly Chilean as the German- 
speaking inhabitants of Southern Brazil are wholly and 
unreservedly Brazilian. All talk about the Germans of 
Valdivia and Llanquihue, as all talk about the Germans in 
Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catharina and Parana, being 
in any way subjects of the Kaiser, or disposed to aid and 
abet any alleged schemes of German conquest in South 
America, is as wild and as fantastic as would be similar 
talk respecting our fellow-citizens of German origin in the 
United States. The people of German descent in Chile who 
have their homes and families there are, it can be posi- 
tively asserted, as much attached to their adopted country 
as are the descendants of the Conquistadores. 

The end of our railway journey in Chile was at Puerto 
Varas, at which we arrived at eight o'clock on a delightful 
morning of the last month of spring. Puerto Varas is a 
bustling little German town on the western shore of Llan- 
quihue and looks much like one of the picturesque burgs 
which adorn the green slopes around Lake Constance or 
Lake Neuchatel. Everybody in town was at the station 
to meet us on our arrival. There was, of course, the in- 
evitable brass band, which discoursed various national 
airs, including "Die Wacht am Rhein," as we exchanged 
greetings with the courteous committee which had come to 
extend to us the hospitality of Puerto Varas. 

But, although we were in a Spanish- American country, 
the language spoken by almost everyone around us was 
German. Many of the people whom we met could not speak 
any other tongue. On all sides we heard the cordial 
"Willkommen" of young and old and could easily fancy 
ourselves among old friends in the Harz or Schwarzwald. 
Like Valdivia, Union and Osorno, Puerto Varas, although 
named after a distinguished Chilean statesman, is in every 

336 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

way distinctively German. Not only is the language of 
the people German, but German also are their dress, their 
habits of life, the structure and appearance of their homes. 
Their cozy and roomy frame cottages were in marked con- 
trast to the narrow, wattle hovels of the roto, or the smoky, 
thatched rucas of the Araucanian. Each cottage was sur- 
rounded by a green grass plot adorned with trim shrub- 
bery, well-kept flower-beds and a number of fruit trees. 
Eoses and geraniums and fuchsias were everywhere — along 
the pathways, around the doors, on the window-sills. Order 
and cleanliness were observable in everything, from the 
tidily dressed children, whose bright, smiling faces greeted 
us on all sides, to the immaculate lace curtains which decked 
the windows of their neat and cheerful homes. Every- 
thing revealed the deft hand of the hausfrau, as well as her 
innate love of order and cleanliness. 

A sumptuous breakfast was served us in the leading 
hotel of the place. All the dishes were served in German 
style, while many of them, like Westphalian ham and Stras- 
burg pate, were to the hungry members of our party not 
unpleasant reminders of the Fatherland. There were, too, 
for those who desired it at that early hour, beer from the 
huge German brewery in Valdivia and choice vintages from 
the cellars of the Rhine and the Moselle. And our portly 
and good-natured German host did the honors in a way 
that would have reflected credit on the most accomplished 
Gashvirt in the land of his fathers. 

To be thus suddenly landed in the heart of Germany, 
while traveling in a Spanish-American republic, seemed 
almost uncanny. But there was another surprise awaiting 
us. There had to be, as in every other place which we 
had visited, a formal address of welcome. Among the 
reception committee were four German Jesuits who were 
engaged in missionary work in this part of the world. It 
was the superior of these missionaries who had been se- 
lected as spokesman for the people of Puerto Varas. His 

337 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

address, however, was not in German, but in English, and 
very correct English it was. It was he, also, who, at the 
end of the speech-making and exchange of compliments, 
called for three cheers for the gnests of the hour, and led 
in the cheering by a vigorous ' ' Hip ! Hip ! Hurrah ! ' ' 

On leaving the hotel in which we had been so royally 
entertained, we found a large number of charming school- 
girls, dressed in white and bearing bouquets of roses, wait- 
ing to greet us. They came from a convent school, nearby, 
conducted by nuns who a few years previously had been 
driven from their homes in France by the notorious Lois 
(['Associations. But this is only one of many instances 
which might be cited of homes of learning and charity in 
Chile which are in the hands of religieuses who have been 
exiled from France by those who should have most appre- 
ciated the value of their services in school, asylum and 
hospital. 

A radical member of the Chilean Congress, Senor 
Pleiteado, proclaimed to the world, a short time before 
our arrival, the measure of the hospitality which his coun- 
try accords the exiled religious of Europe when he de- 
clared in a noted discourse: " Chile is not only a land of 
promise, but also a new Thebaid, where the exiled religious 
from all corners of the world find an asylum. They land 
on our shores and the government at once makes due pro- 
vision to enable them to carry on their works of instruc- 
tion and charity. They arrive without a cent and estab- 
lish themselves without authorization, for none is re- 
quired." They are cordially received everywhere, for the 
Chileans have long since learned their worth and know 
that the services which they render to rich and poor alike 
are such as can be secured only through those who have 
vowed themselves to lives of beneficence and mercy. 

But Chile is not alone in this generous attitude towards 
the exiled sisters of France. I have seen them in the val- 
leys of Venezuela, on the llanos of Colombia, in the wilds 

338 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

of Brazil. And everywhere, as in Chile, they are engaged 
in the instruction of youth and in the care of the sick and 
the helpless and the orphan — everywhere venerated as 
angels of mercy and the noblest of God's creatures on 
earth. 

After enjoying the hospitality of the good people of 
Puerto Varas, we prepared to start on the next lap of our 
journey, which was to take us to Bahia Blanca on the 
eastern side of the continent. As the crow flies, the dis- 
tance across South America is some hundreds of miles 
less in the latitude of Puerto Varas than it is in that of 
Buenos Aires. But as the projected transcontinental rail- 
road from Bahia Blanca to Puerto Yaras is only about 
half completed, the time required to go from the Pacific 
to the Atlantic is, even under the most favorable condi- 
tions, more than twice as long by the southern route as 
that demanded on the railway which connects Buenos Aires 
with Valparaiso. 

All of our party looked forward to this trip across the 
continent with almost jubilant anticipation. The country 
traversed was practically a terra incognita until a few dec- 
ades ago, and even now the number who have visited it 
in recent years are extremely limited. And yet for points 
of interest and magnificent scenery the Andean portion 
of it is unsurpassed by anything similar on the entire 
globe. 

Accompanied by our kind hosts and a greater portion 
of the population of Puerto Varas, we proceeded to the 
landing-place on the shore of Lake Llanquihue, where we 
found a small steamer, about the size of one of the vaporini 
which ply along the canals of Venice, waiting for us. This 
steamer was to convey us to the opposite side of the lake, 
whence we were to continue our journey by alternate ex- 
cursions on land and water until we reached the western 
terminus of the railroad which was to take us to the At- 
lantic seaboard. 

339 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Lake Llanquilme is the largest body of water in tem- 
perate South America. It has an area of about five hun- 
dred square miles and a maximum depth of several hun- 
dred feet. It is one of several lakes which we traversed 
during our peregrinations in Southern Chile and Argen- 
tina. Discovered by Valdivia, it long bore his name. Stu- 
dents of Chilean history and geography cannot but regret 
that this designation was not retained. The waters of this 
superb body of water, like those of Lake Geneva and of 
many Alpine lakes, exhibit an exquisite blue color and are 
in marked contrast with the emerald-green fields by which 
it is surrounded, and the dazzling snow-capped mountain 
peaks which rise almost from the edge of the crystal reser- 
voir at their feet. 

The first things to attract our attention, after our little 
steamer has fairly started on her course, are several tow- 
ering mountains whose summits are covered with perpetual 
snow. But here the line of perpetual snoAV is only about 
five thousand feet above sea level, whereas in the region 
of the equator it is fully three times as high. 

Two of these snow-capped mountains, Calbuco and 
Osorno, are active volcanoes, and they at times eject a vast 
amount of steam, ashes and lava. Osorno is more than 
seven thousand feet high and is a most conspicuous and 
beautiful object from every point of view. Its perfectly 
formed cone, while not so large as those of Misti and 
Cotopaxi, is equally imposing. And although Cotopaxi, 
which is the highest active volcano in the world, is nearly 
three times as high as Osorno, it does not seem to exceed 
it in height. This is because the famous Ecuadorean vol- 
cano rises from a lofty plateau more than two miles above 
sea-level, while the base of Osorno is but a little more than 
a hundred feet above the surface of the Pacific. As I con- 
templated the glittering cone of majestic Osorno, clad in 
eternal snow, I recalled Ercilla's description of the neigh- 
boring volcano of Villa Rica : 

340 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

Gran volcan vecino, 
(Prague segun afirman de Vulcano, 
Que regoldando fuego esta continuo — 

the great volcano nearby, said to be the forge of Vulcan, 
which is continually belching fire. Had the old forger of 
Jupiter's thunderbolts known of Osorno, he would, I fancy, 
have selected it for his smithy rather than iEtna. And his 
adjutant Cyclopes, supposing, of course, that they were not 
insensible to the beauty of their surroundings, would, I am 
sure, have approved of his choice. 

Our first view of Osorno was entrancing. The land- 
scape round about us was suffused with the glorious radi- 
ance of vernal sunshine. All nature was pulsing with the 
rapture of spring. A slight pearly mist hung over the 
placid waters of the lake. The balmy air was opaline in 
its transparency. Filmy, white clouds, like laces, diapered 
the blue sky. Masses of feathery vapor rose from the 
crater of the volcano and slowly floated away into space. 
The lower slopes of the majestically grand. mountain were 
panoplied with shrubs and trees of rare beauty and luxuri- 
ance. As I contemplated the glory of this immense jewel 
of the Creator, the charm of its incomparably noble out- 
line amid its lofty silence and supreme calm, I felt myself 
completely carried away by the enchantment of its irre- 
sistible spell. And I recalled the thoughtful words of Kant, 
who declares that, "In the midst of a beautiful scene of na- 
ture, invaded by a full but calm sense of well-being, when 
his spirit is most open to moral instincts, there seizes man 
an imperious need to be thankful to someone." And to 
whom should our gratitude go out but to Him who has 
fashioned all these wonders of loveliness and sublimity? 

After the marvels of the mountains, that which next 
arrested our attention was the cheerful and gayly fascinat- 
ing houses which were embowered in the woods and gar- 
dens along the shores of the lake and on the flanks and 

341 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

bases of the mountains. These were the homes of the 
German farmers who have here converted what was once 
an impenetrable forest into a veritable Eden. Broad acres 
of wheat and maize and flax; green meadows dotted with 
happy flocks and herds; lovely woodlands with towering 
oaks and pines and cedars, harmonized perfectly with the 
foam-flecked wavelets breaking on the shore and the verdant 
slopes of the sun-kissed hills. 

But these homes of peace and comfort were not won 
without long years of labor and sacrifice. The pioneers, 
here, as in most other countries, had many and protracted 
struggles against hunger and poverty before the reward of 
their toil was in sight. But, nothing daunted by their try- 
ing experience in a strange land, both men and women 
continued to labor bravely and unremittingly until they 
had comfortable homes for themselves and their children, 
and were finally in their old age able to enjoy the success 
of toil under their own vine and fig tree. 

Three hours after leaving Puerto Varas, we arrived 
at the eastern extremity of the lake, where we disembarked 
at the very foot of what, during our passage eastwards, 
had been the cynosure of all eyes — majestic Osorno. Here 
a troop of saddle horses was in waiting to take our party 
across the narrow stretch of land which separates Lake 
Llanquihue from another charming body of water known 
as Lago de Todos los Santos. In addition to the horses, 
there was also a four-wheeled vehicle which was a cross 
between an express wagon and a jaunting-car. Dr. Fran- 
cisco Moreno, the noted Argentine savant, and I chose this 
mode of locomotion. I was glad I did so, for Dr. Moreno 
had spent many years in exploring the region we were 
about to traverse, and no one, either in Chile or in Ar- 
gentina, was more familiar with the marvelous scenes along 
our route, or more competent to interpret the many extraor- 
dinary phenomena which presented themselves to our ad- 
miring gaze. 

342 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

Both Llanquihue and Todos los Santos were originally 
a single body of water that owed its origin to the immense 
glaciers which covered this region when the whole of Pata- 
gonia was covered with a vast mantle of ice and snow. 
The isthmus which now separates the two lakes was formed 
by huge deposits of lava and ashes from the crater of 
Osorno which, ages ago, was far more active than it is at 
present. The last eruption of any importance occurred to- 
wards the middle of the nineteenth century. Calbuco, how- 
ever, which is only a few miles to the southwest, was quite 
active as late as 1893. 

The width of the isthmus between Lakes Llanquihue and 
Todos los Santos is about eight miles. The road from one 
end to the other is over lava and volcanic sand. Owing, 
however, to the long-continued action of the elements, these 
Plutonic deposits have been converted into a rich soil which 
is now covered with luxuriant vegetation. Not far from 
the road is a large formation composed of basaltic col- 
umns like those found in many places along the Andean 
and Rocky Mountain axes all the way from southern Chile 
to northern Alaska. Among the many notable trees and 
shrubs along the wayside, that which particularly attracted 
my attention was the superb Fuchsia macro stemma, the 
parent of most of the cultivated varieties of the fuchsia 
so prized in our gardens and greenhouses. The people of 
California and Oregon pride themselves on the size of 
their fuchsias, but theirs are quite dwarfish beside some 
of the truly arboreal specimens found wild in the luxuriant 
forests which border the lakes of southern Chile. 

After a delightful drive of nearly two hours along 
the foot of mighty Osorno, we arrived at Petrohue, a small 
trading-post on the west shore of Lago Todos los Santos. 
We stopped here long enough to take a much relished 
cup of tea, when we embarked in a small launch for the 
little hamlet of Peulla, at the opposite end of the lake. 
The water of Lake Todos los Santos, in marked contrast to 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the deep blue of Lake Llanquihue, is of an exquisite green 
color. It was for this reason that a modern explorer, ig- 
norant of the work of his predecessors and fancying that 
he had discovered a new lake, gave it the name Laguna 
de la Esmeralda — Emerald Lake. Although this desig- 
nation perfectly describes the appearance of this magnifi- 
cent body of water, it is to be hoped that the name by 
which it was known to the early missionary explorers 
will be retained. 

Of all the lakes I have seen in the New or the Old World, 
I think this Lake of All Saints is the most enchanting. 
Although its area is less than half of that of Lake Llanqui- 
hue, its setting is far more attractive. It is surrounded 
by an escarpment of varied height and character. Here 
are lofty forest-clad hills; there colossal masses of gran- 
ite, bare and jagged. Ever and anon there is a narrow 
ravine through which rushes a white-foamed torrent, or 
a lofty shelf from which leaps the loveliest of waterfalls 
into the dark and deep gulf below, or a series of terraces 
over which pass musical cascades of rarest beauty, or 
tree-fringed glens and coves and silver streams like those 
one is wont to picture in fairyland. Then surmounting 
these fascinating creations of Nature's handicraft are 
majestic Osorno and Calbuco, Techado and Puntiagudo — 
majestic white-mantled mountains which are the homes of 
glaciers and the sources of countless crystalline streams 
and rivers. Still towering above all these and rising into 
the empyreal realms of the condor is imperial Tronador — 
the Thunderer — whose vast ice sheets have, since the Gla- 
cial Period, been unceasingly active in polishing mountains 
and carving out basins for the chains of lakes and lakelets 
with which this region of marvels is everywhere adorned. 

On every side there is the fairest of prospects over 
peaceful glens, wooded islands, opalescent waterfalls. 
Whether we fix our gaze on the lowlands that border the 
emerald waters, or lift our eyes towards the radiant moun- 

344 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

tain heights, our vision rests on a panorama that delights 
the soul and wakes the intellect to unwonted activity. And 
this is true, no matter what the hour of the day. It is 
especially true when the mountains and hills are draped 
in the white mists of the morning; when, at noonday, the 
emerald isles of the lake sleep under a rapture of blue; 
when, at the approach of twilight, mountain and lake and 
island are drowned in the golden vapors of the west. Then 
the colors of the aquamarine lake and its forest-fringed 
shores are quite magical in their variety and depth, while 
the play of light and shadow over the enchanting scene is 
almost mystical. But it is, above all, in the gathering shad- 
ows of the evening, when the green of the woodland melts 
into somber brown, and the mountains seem slowly to 
retire in the distance, folding softly their tenuous veils 
about them, that the golden hours flit away on stealthiest 
wings. Then silence hovers over the magic expanse, peace 
reigns supreme and all nature seems to lie under a hand 
lifted in benediction. 

I was finally roused from my reverie by the shrill 
whistle of the launch announcing our approach to our des- 
tination for the night. Looking landwards, I descried on 
the distant, gloom-enveloped shore a number of lights that 
looked like earth-bound stars. Shortly afterwards we were 
in the charming hamlet of Peulla, under the hospitable 
roof of a comfortable German inn, where we were the re- 
cipients of the same courteous attention which had been 
extended to us in the morning in the delightful Gasthaus 
of Puerto Varas. 

We were up at four o 'clock the following morning and, 
after a cup of coffee and a biscuit, were in the saddle on 
the way to Puerto Blest, on Lago Frio. The first part of 
our journey was along the impetuous, silt-bearing Rio 
Peulla, which has its source in one of the great glaciers 
of giant Tronador. During the Glacial Period this same 
icefield, which now terminates on the flank of Thunder 

345 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Mountain, filled the valley of the Peulla to the height of 
many hundred feet and extended far into the bed of dis- 
tant Lake Llanquihue. All along its former path one finds 
evidence of its resistless eroding power, besides count- 
less moraines of immense rocks which it brought from the 
heights of Tronador and deposited in its course, before 
the advent of a milder climate converted the sluggish ice- 
chute into a tumultuous mountain torrent. 

At an attractive cottage, called Casa Prangue, near the 
head-waters of the Peulla, we saw a number of most luxuri- 
ant rose-bushes bending under a load of the most exquisite 
blooms. They contrasted in a most striking manner with 
the great ice-terminal of Tronador which seemed but a 
stone's throw distant. From the porch of Casa Prangue 
we were afforded our nearest views of Tronador. But 
the impression produced by this monarch of the southern 
Andes was far inferior to that which was made on me 
the preceding evening by picturesque Cerro Techado. We 
were standing on the deck of our launch, enjoying the su- 
perb and radiant scenery of Todos los Santos, when all at 
once the snow-covered summit of Techado 1 appeared 
flanked by two dusky peaks in the foreground. Silhouetted 
against the dark-blue sky, it looked like the Duomo of 
Milan on a colossal scale. Then, as if by magic, it was sud- 
denly lit up by the fires of the setting sun and glowed like 
a temple of burnished gold. Slowly the gold melted into 
crimson and rose, and then, as our boat changed its course, 
the vision vanished as quickly as it had appeared. 

After leaving Casa Prangue, we immediately struck 
into the upper reaches of the forest-clad Cordillera. In 
about an hour, our horses traveling at an ordinary gait, we 
were on the summit of the Andes and examining the simple 
landmark which has the words "Chile" on one side and 
"Argentine" on the other. We were at the boundary line 

1 The explorer Steffen so named this mountain from the fancied resem- 
blance of its summit to the roof — teclw — of a house. 

346 




Mount Osorno with Lake Llanquihue in the Foreground. 




Lago Frio with Troxador in the Distance. 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

of the two republics, the same line which, prolonged north- 
ward, passes under the base of El Christo de los Andes — 
The Prince of Peace. 

"Viva Chile!" shouted Colonel Roosevelt, as we took 
our last look at the monument from Chilean soil. "Viva 
Chile!" was echoed by our entire party. Then, after cross- 
ing the boundary, the Colonel's voice was again heard 
in a vigorous "Viva Argentina!" a viva which was repeated 
by all present. And our cheers were heartfelt, for nowhere 
could we have been more courteously treated, or more roy- 
ally entertained than we had been both in Chile and in 
Argentina. 

The pass by which we crossed the Andes is known as 
Paso Perez Rosales and is but little more than three thou- 
sand feet above sea-level. From Aconcagua to the Straits 
of Magellan the height of the Cordillera gradually de- 
creases as the altitude of the same chain also becomes grad- 
ually less north of lofty Tolima until it reaches its lowest 
depression in Panama. But what interested me more than 
its slight elevation was the knowledge of the fact that 
this remarkable pass had been crossed by the Conquista- 
dores. Until recently not only the pass itself, but all the 
surrounding country was practically unknown and sup- 
posed to offer an absolutely new field for explorers. Now, 
however, thanks to the researches of historians and an- 
tiquarians, it is a matter of common knowledge that the 
entire region from Llanquihue to Nahuelhuapi was famil- 
iar ground for a century and a half following the con- 
quest when, for a number of reasons, it lapsed into ob- 
livion. 

The first of the Conquistadores to cross the Andes by 
the Paso Perez Rosales was Diego Flores de Leon, whose 
family was descended from the kings of France and Leon. 
Accompanied by forty-six men, he traversed the country 
from a point near the volcano Calbuco by practically the 
same route as we ourselves followed. The Spanish drama- 

347 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tist, Perez de Montalvan, refers to this distinguished Con- 
quistador as the 

Maese de campo a quien dan 
En las regiones australes 
Alabanzas immortales. 1 

Kegarding the object of this expedition of Diego Flores, 
I shall have something to say in subsequent pages. 

A little more than two hours after leaving Casa Prangue, 
we were on our way across a third lake. This was the 
beautiful Lago Frio, so called by the Franciscan explorer, 
Menendez, because of its cold water from the melting snows 
and glaciers of the adjacent mountains. Lago Frio is 
much smaller than Lake Todos los Santos, but its scenery 
is no less superb. It is almost surrounded by a lofty ram- 
part of gneiss and granite with heavy, gray battlements 
towering high above the whitish-green waters of the lake 
which, as we glided over its mirror-like surface, gently quiv- 
ered beneath the noonday sun. The air was balmy, gentle 
and caressing. Vistas of green and gold, rendered doubly 
beauteous by the magical play of sunlight and shadow, de- 
lighted the eye and elevated the soul. And as we slowly 
moved over the green waters in the shadows of the tow- 
ering cliffs, a delicate and drowsy languor seemed to creep 
over one and to make one the willing captive of the genius 
loci. 

Lago Frio is connected with Puerto Blest on an arm of 
Nahuelhuapi by a narrow wooden railroad about four miles 
in length. A sturdy old ox is employed as the motive- 
power for conveying passengers and freight over this primi- 
tive track. But the ox seemed to be on a strike the day 
our party required his services. For, after drawing the 
cart forward a few rods and cajoling some of us into 
believing that we were going to have the most romantic 

1 The commander who, in the regions of the south, received undying glory. 

348 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

ride of our lives, he suddenly left the track, pulling the 
cart and passengers with him, and started back to his stable. 
As nothing could induce him to proceed towards our desti- 
nation, and as he was the only animal available for the 
service required, all of our party, except one, who fortu- 
nately had been provided with a good saddle horse, were 
forced to journey to Puerto Blest on foot. 

In the dense forest which separates the two lakes we 
saw some immense specimens of the alerce, the Chilean 
arbor vitae. In no part of South America, except possibly 
on the eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes, have I ever 
seen such forest colossi. While they have not the dimen- 
sions of the famous Sequoias of California, they are prob- 
ably the nearest approach to them of the world's great 
trees. Many of them have a diameter of fifteen feet and 
an altitude of two hundred and fifty. According to the 
estimates of the distinguished botanist, Dr. R. A. Philippi, 
some of the largest trees have the stupendous age of two 
thousand five hundred years. There are, no doubt, some 
exceptional specimens in the great Chilean woodlands 
whose birth was contemporary with the foundation of 
Rome. When we remember that the oldest trees in Europe 
cannot, probably, claim an antiquity of more than a thou- 
sand years, at most, we can realize what forest Methuselahs 
these marvelous Chilean conifers really are. The learned 
historian, Diego de Rosales, called the alerce "el principe 
de los arboles de Chile" — the prince of Chilean trees. For 
a long time the boards made from this tree were used in 
Southern Chile instead of money. It is unsurpassed as 
building material, and the great alerzales — forests of alerce 
— in the southern part of the Republic constitute one of 
the country's richest natural resources. 

It was nearly noon when we reached Puerto Blest. 
Here, after a short stop, we boarded a small steamer for 
the modern town of Bariloche, nearly fifty miles distant. 
The lake is named from an island in its center called by 

349 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the Indians Nahuelhuapi — Island of the Tiger. Why it was 
so called is unknown. The learned Chileno-German savant, 
Francisco Fonck, who thoroughly explored this region sixty 
years ago, renamed the island, calling it Isla Menendez, 
in honor of the eminent Franciscan explorer, Fray Fran- 
cisco Menendez. By this name, it is to be hoped, it will 
hereafter be known. 

In many respects the scenery around Lake Nahuelhuapi 
is like that of the other lakes which we saw on our way 
from Puerto Varas. The view, however, of the snow- 
capped mountains around Nahuelhuapi is more like that 
of the Bolivian and Peruvian Cordilleras as seen from Lake 
Titicaca. They are grandiose and impressive in the ex- 
treme. This is particularly true of towering Tronador 
and a group of mountain peaks to which, from their re- 
semblance to the well-known mountain in Switzerland, 
Fonck has given the name Pilatus. 

The first Spaniards to visit the lake were, as we have 
seen, the Conquistador Diego Flores de Leon and his com- 
panions. This was in the first quarter of the sixteenth 
century. About thirty years later he was followed by the 
missionary and historian, Padre Diego de Eosales. Two 
decades after the expedition of Eosales, the Jesuit, Padre 
Nicolas Mascardi, established a mission on the shores of 
Nahuelhuapi, which, after passing through many vicissi- 
tudes, came to a tragic end at the hands of the Indians 
about 1717, after forty years of uninterrupted existence. 1 

After the destruction of the mission, the entire region 

1 It is worthy of note that the Franciscans had a mission on the shores of 
Lake Nahuelhuapi during the conquest. Even at that early period, the lake in 
question was known as "la famosa laguna de Nahuelhuapi. ' ' This long-for- 
gotten mission met with the same fate, at the hands of the Indians, as that 
which afterwards befell the mission established by Mascardi. Cf. the elab- 
orate work by the Chilean author, M. L. Amunategui, entitled "Question de 
Limites entre Chile i la Republica Argentina," Tom. Ill, p. 340, Santiago, 
1879-80. See also 'Historia Fisica y Politica de Chile, Documentos, ' ' Tom. I, 
p. 313 et seq., by Sr. D. Claudio Gay, Paris, 1846. 

350 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

between Lake Llanquihue and Lake Nahuelhuapi was virtu- 
ally forgotten until the end of the eighteenth century. It 
was then again thoroughly explored several times by the 
Franciscan missionary, Fray Francisco Menendez. But, 
by a strange fatality, his wonderful achievements as an 
explorer were practically lost sight of for nearly a cen- 
tury. Then his remarkable Diarios, in which he gives an 
account of his numerous expeditions, were published with 
annotations in two most interesting volumes, 1 by Francisco 
Fonck, who, having himself thoroughly explored the coun- 
try traversed by the tireless friar, was the one best quali- 
fied to appreciate his work and make it known to the 
world. 2 

No part of South America, it may safely be asserted, has 
possessed a greater fascination for explorers than has that 
strip of territory which lies between Lake Llanquihue and 
Lake Nahuelhuapi. During the last half-century, particu- 
larly, men of science from many lands have flocked to this 
region of enchanting lakes, snow-capped peaks and sleep- 
ing volcanoes. Among them were botanists, geologists, 
ethnologists, geographers. There were men who were in 
search of gold and silver mines; men whose object was 
the development of trade between Chile and Argentina, 
or the location of the shortest and best railway route at 
this latitude between the Pacific and the Atlantic. To stu- 

1 "Viajes de Fray Francisco Menendez a la Cordillera." Publicados y 
Comentados por Francisco Fonck, Valparaiso, 1896. 

"Viajes de Fray Francisco Menendez a Nahuelhuapi." Publicados y 
Comentados por Francisco Fonck, Valparaiso, 1900. 

2 As an evidence of how completely the achievements of the early explorers 
were forgotten, until a few decades ago, it suffices to state that Fonck, at the 
time of his exploration of Nahuelhuapi, was utterly ignorant of the fact that 
he had been preceded by Menendez and that the distinguished Franciscan had 
given in his Diario a graphic description of the lake and the surrounding coun- 
try. This accounts for Fonck 's renaming many places which the monk-explorer 
had named in the preceding century. The same may be said of other recent 
explorers, who, in traversing the region between Llanquihue and Nahuelhuapi, 
which was so familiar to the missionaries of two and a half centuries ago, 
imagined that they were making known to the world a veritable terra incognita. 

351 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

dents of orography and hydrography no country in the 
world offers more attractions or problems of greater in- 
terest. The list of those who have distinguished themselves 
by their researches in this rich field is a large one and 
their names have an honored place in the annals of science. 
Among these are Francisco Fonck, whose works on the 
illustrious explorer-monk, Menendez, have commanded the 
admiration and the gratitude of all students of South Amer- 
ican history and geography. Comparing the explorations 
of Menendez with those of explorers of more recent date, 
Fonck does not hesitate to declare that the long-forgotten 
Franciscan carried away the palm from all of them — 
llevaba aun la palma a todos ellos. 1 There were also E. A. 
and Bernardo Philippi, Rohde, Fischer, Hess, Steffen, 
Geiss, Stange, Domeyko, Mumm, Brsemer, O'Connor, 
Christie, Schiorbeck, Dusen and Wiederhold and our 
learned compagnon de voyage, Dr. Francisco Moreno. 

The purpose of the explorations of those last named was 
the advancement of science and the furtherance of the wel- 
fare of the two sister republics, Chile and Argentina. But 
the earlier explorers, beginning with Diego Flores de Leon, 
had quite a different object in view. What they hoped to 
achieve surpassed even the legendary exploits of Ruy Diaz 
de Bivar and exceeded the wildest dreams of the deluded 
seekers for El Dorado. Nothing, indeed, in the entire his- 
tory of Spanish conquest and colonization is more roman- 
tic or fantastic than the long series of remarkable expedi- 
tions which were inaugurated by the Conquistador Diego 
de Flores and continued, with little interruption, for nearly 
two and a half centuries. As very little is to be found 
about these expeditions, outside of certain little known 
works in Spanish, and as many of them are closely COn- 
^as exploraciones de Darwin i Fitzroy, de Cox i Musters, de Moreno. 
Fontana, Mayano i Lista del lado del Atlantico, i de Hudson, Vidal Gomez i 
Simpson desde el Pacifico, habian dejado, todavia un vacio considerable en 
casi todo el trajecto de la Cordillera de modo que nuestro Menendez Ueva aun 
la palma a todos ellos." Op. cit., Tom. II, p. 451. 

352 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

nected with the region which we are now considering, a 
brief account of them will not be out of place. 

Conquest had been the mainspring of action in all the 
preceding expeditions of the Spaniards in Chile and La 
Plata. From the time of Diego de Plores, however, their 
energies and ambitions were stimulated by the reported 
existence of a fabulous city somewhere in the southern 
part of the continent. It is known in history as La Ciudad 
Encantada de los Cesares — The Enchanted City of the 
Caesars. Many accounts were given of its origin, but the 
one which appealed most strongly to popular fancy was 
that which attributed its existence to the passengers and 
crew of a Spanish vessel belonging to the bishop of Palan- 
cia, which had been shipwrecked in the Straits of Magellan 
before Valdivia left Cuzco for the conquest of Chile. These 
unfortunates were on their way to the Moluccas, when their 
Vessel was driven by a furious storm upon the desolate shore 
of southern Patagonia. The victims numbered one hundred 
and ninety-eight soldiers and mariners, thirty adventurers 
and twenty-three married women. There were also three 
aged priests, who had embarked to minister to the spir- 
itual wants of their countrymen. 

The plight of these unfortunates, far away from the 
nearest of their compatriots, was almost desperate. But 
their valiant captain, Don Sebastian de Arguello, was not 
the type of man to be overcome by what one less brave 
and resourceful would have deemed an irremediable ca- 
tastrophe. After remaining for a short time in the vicinity 
of the scene of disaster, he started with his people towards 
the north, and after numerous conflicts with the hostile 
natives, finally reached a stretch of country in which there 
were delightful lakes surrounded by smiling meadows. 
Here the gallant captain pitched his tents, made from the 
sails of his ship, and resolved to make this charming place 
his permanent abode. Nay more ! He would establish here 
an independent kingdom, where he and his companions 

353 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

might live in peace and far away from the strifes and the 
tumults of the rest of the world. 

They had been preceded to this part of the world, 
so report had it, by a colony of native Peruvians, who, to 
escape the fate of their countrymen in Cajamarea, had emi- 
grated far to the southward. Attracted by the beautiful 
lakes and the fertile lands surrounding them, which so fas- 
cinated the Spaniards, the Children of the Sun had here 
established a city which, according to the sworn state- 
ments of those who pretended to have been in it, was as vast 
and as rich as Nineveh of old and greater in area than 
London or Pekin. The houses were of cut stone, with 
roofs of reddish material that shone like gold. The fur- 
niture of these houses — the beds, chairs, tables — were all 
of silver and gold of the finest quality. In the immediate 
vicinity of the enchanted city there was one mountain of 
gold and another of diamonds. Pearls were almost as 
abundant as the precious metals. The climate was so health- 
ful that disease was unknown, and the inhabitants died 
only of old age. The church was a sumptuous edifice, and 
its roof of burnished silver shone like a red-hot coal. The 
festivals of the ecclesiastical year were celebrated with 
extraordinary pomp and rejoicings. The people were so 
happy in their isolation and so unwilling to have their 
whereabouts known by their countrymen that they had an 
understanding with the neighboring Indians that the secret 
of the location of their city was to be inviolably preserved. 
According to the accounts of those who testified under 
oath only to what they had "seen with their own eyes 
and touched with their own hands," the Enchanted City of 
the Caesars held within its carefully fortified walls all the 
delights of Eden, and all the wonders of the New Jeru- 
salem. 

This marvelous city which was built by Sebastian de 
Arguello and his shipwrecked companions and their de- 
scendants was called La Ciudad de los Cesar es, because its 

354 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

founders were the subjects of Charles V, who on account 
of his world-wide power was called "The Caesar." It was 
spoken of as Encantada not only because of the prodigies 
which were related of it, but also because of its being lo- 
cated on the shores of lakes of enchanting beauty. It was 
this picturesque and grandiose name, as the graceful writer, 
B. Vicuna Mackenna, 1 well observes, which contributed not 
a little to invest the legend of the city of the Caesars with 
the prestige which it so long enjoyed. 

The first to make known to the world the existence of 
the Caesars, as the people of the Enchanted City were called, 
were two Spaniards who pretended to have been among 
the number of those who had been shipwrecked with Don 
Sebastian de Arguello and his companions and to have 
lived with them seventeen years after the date of the ship- 
wreck in 1540. They made their appearance in Concepcion, 
Chile, in 1557, and, after they had told the story of their 
adventures and of the marvels of the City of the Caesars, 
they were treated with the greatest consideration. A writ- 
ten copy of their narrative was made, to which the adventur- 
ers subscribed under oath. A copy of this document was 
sent to Philip II and its truth was vouched for by the 
authorities of Concepcion. Soon everybody was talking 
about La Ciudad Encantada. Its marvels were the subjects 
of discussion from Spain to the Philippines and from Mex- 
ico to Tierra del Fuego. Everywhere expeditions were 
hastily organized for the discovery of the wonderful city 
and the chiefs of the divers expeditions vied with one an- 
other in being the first to reach their long-isolated country- 
men. Many of the expeditions were organized by private 
initiative, but most of them owed their existence to the 
governments of Chile, La Plata and Peru. Some of them, 
even, were favored by royal cedulas from the mother 
country. 

Nobody doubted for a moment the existence of the 

1 " Relaeiones Historicas, ' ' Santiago de Chile, 1877. 

355 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Caesars. How could one harbor doubt in the face of so 
many eye-witnesses who swore in the most solemn manner 
that what they had related was absolute truth, and were 
ready to submit to any punishment if what they had as- 
serted of the Csesars was not Gospel truth? As an evi- 
dence of the unshaken belief which everywhere prevailed 
respecting the existence of the Caesars, men were found in 
every walk of life who were prepared to sacrifice time 
and money and even to risk their lives in the quest of 
the Enchanted City. Among these were some of the most 
noted and the most sane of the Conquistadores. Carefully 
equipped expeditions, with the same goal in view, started 
almost simultaneously from Buenos Aires, from Cordoba, 
from Valdivia, from Chiloe, all of them with the knowl- 
edge and approval of the King of Spain, the viceroy of 
Peru and the governors of Chile and Rio de la Plata. Long 
marches over arid deserts and unexplored mountains, 
through dense and trackless forests and lands jealously 
guarded by hostile savages, had no terrors for them. They 
rather gave zest to an enterprise which appealed so strongly 
to Spanish chivalry and love of adventure and which prom- 
ised so much glory to those who should have part in the 
undertaking. Even priests and monks were carried away 
by the dominant enthusiasm of the multitude. Not doubt- 
ing the existence of the Caesars, they considered it their 
bounden duty to look after the spiritual welfare of those 
who had so long been separated from Christian associa- 
tion and influence. The Jesuit historian, Rosales, expressed 
the general sentiment of his brethren in religion when 
he wrote: "May the Divine Majesty have pity on the de- 
scendants of the shipwrecked Spaniards who are in dan- 
ger of losing not only the faith of their fathers, but also 
of becoming as barbarous as the Indians among whom they 
live." 1 

1 "Quiera la divina Majestad compadecerse de destos Espafioles — en 
quienes estara apagada la luz de la fee, que sus Padres les comunicarian ya 

356 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

Of the Cesaristas — the epithet applied to those who went 
in search of the Caesars — who crossed the Cordillera by the 
same route which we ourselves followed nearly three cen- 
turies later, we have already mentioned the noble and 
intrepid Diego de Leon. But he had scarcely reached the 
shores of Nahuelhuapi when he found the prosecution of 
his enterprise blocked by hordes of belligerent savages who, 
he was informed, stood between him and the object of his 
quest. 

About half a century afterwards, he was followed by 
Padre Nicolas Mascardi, a zealous Jesuit missionary, who 
conceived it to be his duty to discover the whereabouts of 
the Caesars and bring to them anew the gospel of Christ. 
Mascardi was a particular friend of Eosales, who then oc- 
cupied the position of vice-provincial of the Society in Chile. 
Both men were agreed about the necessity of discovering 
the whereabouts of the Caesars and carrying to them the 
message of salvation. It seemed clear to both of them that, 
after being separated from civilization for more than a cen- 
tury, the denizens of the Enchanted City had lost not only 
their faith, but also the language of their fathers. How 
then was one to communicate with them? This was a 
problem which gave them much thought. After a thorough 
discussion, it was resolved that Mascardi should formulate 
a letter to the Caesars which should be written in several 
languages, in the hope that they might be able to under- 
stand at least one of these missives. 

Having secured the approbation of his superior and the 
authorization of the governor of Chile and of the viceroy 
of Peru for his great undertaking, Mascardi started with- 
out delay for Lake Nahuelhuapi, on the shore of which 
he established a mission for the Indians. This was to be 
the base of operations in his search for the City of the 

humeando, y con la mezela de los indios estaran tan barbaros como ellos. ' ' 
"Historia General de el Eeyno de Chile," Tom. I, Lib. I, Cap. XVII, Val- 
paraiso, 1877. 

357 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Caesars. From this point it probably was that he dis- 
patched by an Indian courier the polyglot letters as con- 
ceived by him and his friend, Rosales. They were written 
in no fewer than seven languages — Latin, Spanish, Italian, 
Greek, Chilean, Puelche and Poya. He felt sure that the 
lost Christians whom he so eagerly sought would under- 
stand at least one of these tongues, in case they had for- 
gotten that of their forefathers. 1 

While waiting for an answer to his letter to the people 
of the Enchanted City, Mascardi received information from 
certain Indians which led him to believe that the Caesars, 
instead of living south of Nahuelhuapi, had their home 
somewhere on the Atlantic Coast. Following the indica- 
tions thus furnished him, he crossed the continent and even- 
tually found himself near the present Port St. Julian, in 
southeastern Patagonia. But nowhere on his long and try- 
ing journey across the continent did he find the slightest 
trace of the mysterious Caesars. This, however, did not con- 
vince him of their nonexistence. Relying on other Indian 
tales, he was ready, after making three long journeys in 
quest of the ever-vanishing will-o'-the-wisp, to undertake 
a fourth, which he was sure would give him a solution of 
the problem on which he had so long labored. He started 
again towards the Straits of Magellan, but when he had 
nearly reached his goal, as he fondly imagined, he met, 
according to Olivares, a cruel death at the hands of ruth- 
less savages, in 1673. 

1 This was only the first of many letters that were afterwards addressed to 
the Caesars not only by Mascardi but also by the organizers and leaders of 
subsequent expeditions. More than a century after Mascardi 's time — in 1793 — 
another ardent Cesarista, Jose de Moraleda, was the bearer, by the order of the 
governor of Chiloe, of a special sealed letter with the superscription: Por el 
rei a los senores espanoles establecidos al sur de la laguna de Nahuelhuapi — 
For the King, to the Spaniards established at the south of Lake Nahuelhuapi. 
Moraleda, " Esploraciones Jeograficas y Hidrograficas, " p. 389, Santiago, 1888. 

For an interesting account of Padre Mascardi 's numerous attempts to 
discover the City of the Caesars the reader is referred to Sr. Amunategue's 
' ' Question de Limites, ' ; Tom. Ill, p. 76 et seq. 

358 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

Nearly a century and a quarter had elapsed after the 
death of Mascardi, but the belief in the existence of the 
Caesars was still so strong that the viceroy of Peru, Fran- 
cisco Gil y Lemus, did not hesitate to send the Franciscan 
explorer, Friar Menendez, on an expedition to Lake Nahuel- 
huapi, whose object, as had been that of so many previous 
expeditions from the time of the conquest, was the discov- 
ery of the City of the Caesars, which the viceroy was led 
to believe was not far from this famous body of water 
at the eastern foot of the sierra. 

But Menendez was the last explorer to receive a com- 
mission to search for the Caesars. Thenceforward their ex- 
istence was definitely recognized by those in authority as 
a fiction and all attempts at their discovery were forever 
abandoned. The Caesars, after having preoccupied the 
minds of Spain and her colonies for two and a half cen- 
turies, were finally recognized as a ridiculous invention, 
whose origin was as incomprehensible as their character 
was extravagant. But, strange as it may appear, Charles 
III, who died in 1788, was until the day of his death a firm 
believer in La Ciudad Encantada. He was referred to as 
"El hi jo de los Cesar es de Espana y el ultimo que dejo de 
creer en los Cesar es de Chile" — The son of the Caesars of 
Spain and the last one who ceased to believe in the Caesars 
of Chile. 

But, although the Caesars were completely discredited 
after the expeditions of Menendez in so far as the govern- 
ment officials of Spain and her colonies were concerned, 
the common people of Chile and Argentina did not lose 
faith in them. But opinion differed as to the location of 
the Enchanted City. Some averred that the old mission 
of Nahuelhuapi was a suburb of the capital of the Caesars. 
Others declared that the mysterious city was situated on 
an island in Lake Pueyhue, a short distance to the north 
of Todos los Santos. The streams of lava and volcanic 
sand which we saw at the foot of the volcano of Osorno 

359 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

are even today considered by some of the neighboring in- 
habitants as roads which were built by the Caesars, and 
the thundering noise made by the rush of avalanches — 
Byron's "thunderbolts of ice and snow" — down the sides 
of Tronador are regarded by them as the reports of their 
artillery. 1 

As we read of these countless expeditions of the Span- 
iards in pursuit of a phantom, we are inclined to regard 
them as a nation of fantastic adventurers of the type of 
Don Quixote. But we forget that they were confronted 
with a world of marvels, where nothing was considered 
impossible. The reports which had reached them concern- 
ing the Enchanted City of the Csesars seemed to them more 
reliable than were those which led Columbus to the discov- 
ery of the New World. In that age of illusions in which 
many things which had been realized which before had 
been deemed impossible, the unbridled imagination wan- 
dered in an interminable region of chimeras; and, in the 
midst of privations and dangers, men sustained themselves 
on that which most harmonized with their ideas, or most 
flattered their hopes. The unexpected spectacle of the 
vast treasures found in the temples and palaces of the 
Incas inflamed the desires and perverted the judgment of 
these lucky adventurers, who, not content with the rich 
fruits of their victories, promised themselves to multiply 
them by extending the sphere of their conquests. 

"There are," observes Pedro de Angelis, "epochs in 
which the reason is bewildered by the contemplation of new 
and unusual objects. And even the most clear-sighted man, 
when exposed to a continuous series of violent impressions, 
ceases to analyze them and descends to the level of com- 
mon intelligences which exaggerate and marvel at every- 
thing. To comply with the precept of the sage, nil admirari, 
one must be in the full exercise of his faculties and have 
acquired a certain dominion over his senses which are al- 

^onek, op. cit., Tom. II, pp. 438, 439. 

360 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

ways prone to bewitch and deceive him. How far were 
the Conquistadores of America from this state of intel- 
lectual calm? For them everything was matter for sur- 
prise. The spectacle of a new world, new peoples, new 
customs, and, more than all else, those inexhaustible foun- 
tains of riches which gushed forth everywhere with greater 
rapidity than their desire to possess them, maintained men 
in a sweet and perpetual ecstasy. Without taking opium, 
like the Mussulmans, they experienced the same sensations 
from which they could not free themselves without great 
effort." 1 

If it is urged that most of the Cesarists were the dupes 
of lying Indians, whose tales respecting the Csesars should 
never have been given the slightest credence, we must re- 
member that it was the assertion of an Indian which en- 
abled Balboa to make his epochal discovery of the great 
South Sea. It was an Indian who told Pizarro of the vast 
nation of the Incas and of the fabulous treasures of Guzco. 
It was information furnished by Indians, respecting the 
wealth of the Aztecs and the Muiscas, that guided Cortes 
to the rich capital of Montezuma, and Quesada to the opu- 
lent plateau of Cundinamarca. 

It is true that the lust of gold often made them the dupes 
of the Indians who, in order to get rid of their unwelcome 
guests, regaled them with stories of powerful cities and 
exhaustless supplies of the precious metals in the depths 
of the tropical forests and in lands far distant from their 
own. It was thus that they sent the Spaniards on a wild- 
goose chase after the Gran Quivira, a flourishing empire in 
New Mexico, which, it was averred, had been established 
there by one of the heirs of Montezuma. It was thus that 
they started hosts of adventurers in search of the Gran 

1 ' ' Colleceion de Obras y Documentos Kelativos a la Historia Antigua J 
Moderna de las Provincias del Eio de la Plata." In his "Discurso Pre- 
liminar a las Noticias y Derroteros de la Ciudad de los Cesares, ' ; Tom. I, p. v, 
Buenos Aires, 1836. 

361 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Paytiti, somewhere between Peru and Brazil, where it was 
said the Incas, with a large number of followers and untold 
treasures, had fled after the conquest of Cuzco by Pizarro. 
It was thus, too, that they were able to trick the most 
distinguished of the Conquistadores into organizing expe- 
dition after expedition to scour the whole continent from 
the Pacific to the Atlantic and from the Amazon to the 
Caribbean in search of the mythical El Dorado. This illu- 
sory being of fancy was at first declared by the Indians 
to be a gilded man, but in the course of years was, in the 
imagination of the eager and credulous Spaniards, trans- 
formed into a city and then into a country whose treasures 
of gold were beyond the dreams of Oriental fable. 

But the labors of the expeditions which went in search 
of such ignes fatui as El Dorado and the Enchanted City 
of the Caesars were not in vain. Thanks to them, the whole 
of Spanish America, from the Strait of Magellan to the 
Grand Canon of the Colorado, was thoroughly explored 
almost two centuries before Lewis and Clark made their 
memorable journey from the Mississippi to the mouth of 
the Colombia, and more than two centuries before the veil 
of mystery was lifted from that portion of our country 
which was so long known as the Great American Desert. 
Of the journeys of Mascardi, who traversed Patagonia in 
every direction in quest of the Caesars, the Chilean histo- 
rian, Barros Arana, declares "they exhibit something of 
the prodigious." Full two hundred years elapsed before 
the intrepid English explorer, George C. Musters, followed 
the indefatigable missionary whose footprints had long 
been effaced by the winds of the desert. 

Some writers love to dwell on a fancied analogy between 
the knights errant of the Middle Ages, who sought a miracu- 
lous jewel in a mystical castle, and the Spanish adventurers 
of the New World, who were fascinated by the lure of El 
Dorado and La Ciudad Encantada. Francisco Fonck x sees 

1 Op. cit., Tom. II, p. 497. 

362 



MYTHS AND MARVELS 

a more striking analogy between the Holy Grail and the 
Enchanted City. To him the City of the Caesars is the 
American correlative of the Castle of Monsalvat, and the 
famous Sebastian de Arguello is another Parsifal who gov- 
erns his kingdom with paternal solicitude and, like the sub- 
lime creation of Chrestien de Troyes and Wolfran von 
Eschenbach, symbolizes Christian and chivalrous virtues 
such as were so assiduously cultivated during the Ages 
of Faith. 

B. Vicuna Mackenna, in concluding his interesting study 
on La Ciudad Encantada de los Cesares, 1 declares with 
truth that the whole subject is more appropriate for "a 
drama of palpitating emotion than for sober history." 
Since the distinguished Chilean litterateur made this state- 
ment, the romantic episode of the Caesars has been drama- 
tized by Don Jorge Klinckman in his notable production, 
La Ciudad Encantada de Chile. His manner of treatment 
is conclusive evidence, if any were needed, that no theme 
furnishes a better motif for any work of the imagination, 
be it epic, romance or opera. 

As we fared on our way from Puerto Varas to Bariloche, 
ravished by the gorgeous scenes which were everywhere 
presented to our delighted vision by lake, forest and moun- 
tain, and recalled the countless legends woven around these 
picturesque spots and felt the glamour which was cast over 
everything by fantastic Csesarist and adventurous Con- 
quistador, I yearned for the "vision and faculty divine" 
of some consummate word-artist that I might give adequate 
expression to the sensations and impressions which I then 
experienced. Nowhere in South America is there a more 
promising field for poet, painter or romancist, than is that 
which it was our privilege to survey during our rapturous 
journey from Chile to Patagonia, The scenery, the atmos- 
phere, the storied past make a special appeal to their love 
of nature and legendary lore. If such literary craftsmen 

1 In "Kelaciones Historicas," p. 80, ut sup. 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

as Eobert Hicliens and Pierre Loti could be induced to 
visit this enchanting and romantic region they would, I 
am sure, find their imaginations stirred quite as strongly 
as they were when under the spell of the Nile and the 
Bosphorus. For, as I felt at the time of our visit, and feel 
now when recalling my first impressions, there are few, if 
any regions on the globe which exhibit within so small 
compass more of the beautiful and sublime in nature than 
does that marvelous stretch of country which is transmuted 
and glorified by the roseate glow of the morning and the 
evening sun on the silver crowns of Osorno and Tronador. 



CHAPTER XVI 
MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

The snow-crowned summits of Pilatus and El Tronador 
were gleaming under the fires of the setting sun as our 
small craft crept slowly towards the small landing-place 
of Bariloche. Our journey over the enchanting Cordillera 
had been a succession of delights and raptures. The 
weather was ideal, and on the unruffled surface of Lago 
Frio and Lake Nahuelhuapi were gathered all the marvels 
of color of all the southern seas. 

All this was a most agreeable surprise to us. For, 
before leaving Santiago, we had been told to prepare for 
heavy rains on the mountains and squally weather on the 
lakes. We were also warned to travel light and to be pre- 
pared to spend the night a la belle etoile. "You cannot," 
we were told, "be always sure of finding shelter in a land 
that is almost uninhabited and where rainstorms are so 
frequent and so prolonged as they are in the country you 
are about to traverse." The early missionaries had de- 
scribed the region we were to visit as subject to down- 
pours for weeks without cessation and the lakes, at times, 
as almost impassable because of the terrific temporales and 
borrascas — storms and tempests — which are there of such 
frequent occurrence. 

As we were congratulating ourselves on our good 
fortune during the first part of our journey across the con- 
tinent and wondering whether we should be equally fa- 
vored during the rest of it, conversation was suddenly ar- 
rested by the music of a brass band on the landing-place, 
a short distance in front of us. All the inhabitants, young 

365 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and old, of the surrounding country had come to greet 
us, and this they did in the most kindly manner possible. 
There was the usual address of welcome by the official rep- 
resentative of Bariloche and the usual response by the 
spokesman of our party. We were then escorted to a 
modest inn, where special arrangements had been made 
for our comfort and entertainment. 

I was not long in this unpretentious hostelry until I 
met a charming gentleman from sunny Italy, who invited 
me td take a walk through the town. I gladly accepted 
his invitation, as it gave me an opportunity to see the 
people of this frontier pueblo. Although but recently 
founded, it now numbers nearly twelve hundred inhab- 
itants. Most of the buildings are small frame structures, 
not unlike those of Puerto Varas. Among those we met 
during our promenade was a young Irish stockman, whose 
hacienda was near the road which we were to take on our 
way to Neuquen. He had come to ask us to be his guests 
at luncheon the following day. Our plans, much to our 
regret, made it impossible to accept the hospitality of this 
warm-hearted son of Erin. Like others of his countrymen, 
he had but a few years previously come to this far-western 
border of Argentina and, according to his friends, had 
been favored by fortune in a special manner. He was a 
worthy type of the ubiquitous Irishman whose brilliant 
achievements in Argentina and Chile are an honor to his 
race as well as to the country of his adoption. 

After a hasty view of the town, my Italian companion 
graciously invited me to his home. It proved to be the 
coziest and most beautiful house in the place. It was not 
unlike a Swiss chalet and was located on an eminence from 
which one had a splendid view of the lake and the adjoin- 
ing country. Surrounded by fruit and shade trees and 
flanked by vegetable and flower gardens, it was, indeed, a 
most attractive abode. As I was entering the house, I was 
surprised to find myself surrounded by a number of light- 

366 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

haired, blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked boys and girls, whom the 
swarthy Italian introduced to me as his children. Their 
features were so un-Italian that I was at first quite puzzled 
by what I saw. But it was only for a moment, for when 
the mother appeared the mystery was cleared up at once. 
She was a light-haired, blue-eyed woman from Bavaria, who 
cordially greeted me in German. The husband, who was 
from the province of Venice, spoke German fluently, but 
the wife spoke Italian only with difficulty. The older chil- 
dren chattered away not only in the two languages of 
their parents, but also in Spanish, which was the tongue 
of their companions and school-fellows. Everything in and 
about the house bore the impress of the careful housewife, 
from the tidily dressed children to the trellised rose-bushes 
that adorned the spacious front porch which overlooked 
beautiful, mountain-girt Nahuelhuapi whose tranquil sur- 
face, under the beams of the setting sun, was like an im- 
mense reservoir of molten gold. Rarely have I seen any- 
where a happier family than this one with which I was thus 
unexpectedly brought into contact on the outskirts of civili- 
zation. And nowhere have I ever seen parents more 
devoted to their children than were that Italian father 
and German mother, whose home nestled at the foothills 
of the southern Cordillera. 

As we sat on the flower-decked porch, talking of the 
lands of Dante and Goethe, I was reminded that we were 
on historic ground. For it was from this spot, or from 
one hard by, that Diego Flores de Leon and Mascardi 
started southwards in their quest of the Enchanted City 
of the Caesars. On our right, a short distance towards the 
east, was the Rio Limai, which carries the waters of Lake 
Nahuelhuapi to the great Rio Negro, which in turn delivers 
them to the far-off Atlantic. Both of these rivers have 
been made famous by the achievements of early and mod- 
ern explorers. Among them was our accomplished travel- 
ing companion, Dr. Moreno, who loves to tell of his adven- 

367 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tures in this part of the world during the last quarter of 
the nineteenth century. A few years hence, if the dreams 
of the enthusiastic denizens of Bariloche are realized, 
these two fertile valleys will be traversed by the iron horse 
on its way from the Atlantic to the Pacific, crossing the 
Andes by the route used by the missionaries nearly three 
centuries ago. When that day shall arrive, Bariloche, we 
were assured, will become an important commercial cen- 
ter, as well as a resort for tourists on their way from 
Buenos Aires to Santiago. 

The region between Bariloche and the Chilean frontier 
has already been designated by the Argentine government 
as a national park, and there is every reason to believe 
that the area between the Chilean boundary and Puerto 
Varas will ultimately be set aside for a similar purpose. 
The people of the two republics will then have one of 
the most beautiful national parks in the world, and all 
travelers to South America's Southland, who have leisure 
and means, will wish to cross the continent by what 
will then be recognized as the chief scenic route across the 
Andes. The people of Chile and Argentina love to call 
this park region "The Switzerland of South America," 
and no one who has visited this part of the continent would 
regard their view as exaggerated. 1 

1 The hopes and ambitions of the people of Bariloche regarding the future 
of their charming little town are well indicated in a recent work entitled 
"Modern Patagonia, 7 ' issued by the Argentina Ministry of Public Works, in 
which we read ' ' As Nahuelhuapi compares with Lake Lucerne so may Bari- 
loche compare with the city of Lucerne as a tourist resort. ' ' P. 416. 

More than this. The government of Argentina has already made plans 
for a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants, which is to be located on Lake 
Nahuelhuapi, a few miles to the northeast of Bariloche. According to its pro- 
jectors, this city of the future is to be reached by the new transcontinental 
railroad, already begun, which is to connect San Antonio on the Atlantic with 
Valdivia on the Pacific. It is, if present plans be realized, to be made a great 
industrial center and to take its place, a few decades hence, among the great 
cities of the Eepublic. Nahuelhuapi City, as this new metropolis is already 
named, will certainly not be without attractions. It will be ' ' situated at the 
entrance to the national park, in a region of delightful summer climate," and 

368 




Bariloche and Lake Xahuelhuapi. 




^^^^■^^^^^^^^^i^ 



^^-l^t^X."*, 



B&rsfey>\ *JCV-^k -_-»'*%**•. •^§f.°-_ ./<>» 



Transporting Merchandise in Patagonia. 



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MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

On the opposite shore of the lake, almost directly west 
of the outlet of Bio Limai, is probably the most notable spot 
in this land of fascinating legends and sublime achieve- 
ments. For here was located the mission which was for 
nearly half a century the center of so many noble deeds 
and heroic sacrifices. It was here that the accomplished 
Sardinian missionary, Padre Guillelmo, devoted his leisure 
time to the preparation of books on the languages of the 
Puelches and the Poyas — the Indian tribes which he made 
such strenuous efforts to civilize and evangelize. In this 
important work he was emulated by his zealous disciple 
and associate, Padre Gaspar Lopez. But besides the more 
serious work of the mission, these scholarly ministers of 
the Gospel continued to find time for the cultivation of 
letters. Padre Guillelmo, in particular, was the author of 
a number of works in prose and verse, but these, unfortu- 
nately, were destroyed by the fire, said to have been started 
by the treacherous Puelches, which left the mission in ashes. 

One is surprised to find that a nascent literary center 
existed in this isolated and unknown spot of Patagonia 
where everything — the enmity of ruthless savages and the 
rigors of untoward nature — seemed to conspire against 
not only the cultivation of the Muses, but also against any 
successful attempt at the development of even the simplest 
elements of culture. But the intellectual work begun here 
under such unfavorable auspices was no more remarkable 
than similar achievements in other parts of Spanish Amer- 
ica. For wherever the flag of Castile was unfurled — from 
California to the Straits of Magellan — there was the mis- 

should, therefore, so we are assured, "become not only a center of manufac- 
ture and traffic but also an attractive resort for tourists." Ibid., p. 206. 

There can be little doubt, once the San Antonio and Nahuelhuapi Railway 
will have been completed, that the park region between Bariloche and Puerto 
Varas will become the most popular tourist resort in South America. It will 
be within easy reach of most of the continent south of the tropic of Capricorn 
and, besides offering most of the scenic attractions of Colorado, of the Yosem- 
ite and the Yellowstone parks, will also exhibit numerous other interesting 
features which our famous western resorts do not possess. 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

sionary occupied not only in making known the truths of 
the Gospel to the untutored aborigines, but also in writing 
the histories of the tribes which they evangelized and in 
describing the marvels of Nature which everywhere sur- 
rounded them. 

After the Conquistadores of the sword had completed 
their vast undertaking of annexing a new world to the 
already powerful dominion of the Spanish monarch, it was 
the Conquistadores of the Cross who set forth to win to 
the Church the newly-made subjects of the Crown of Cas- 
tile. With an intrepidity which commanded the admiration 
of the world, they penetrated into the depths of the track- 
less wilderness, seeking the children of the forest and bear- 
ing to them the teachings of the Master. In accomplishing 
their mission of charity, there was not a nook or corner 
of the continent which they did not explore. From the 
Grand Canon of the Colorado to Tierra del Fuego, every- 
thing was an open book to them. The geography and eth- 
nography of this vast territory, with its untold riches and 
exuberant flora, were better known to them than to the 
Spanish government. As for the rest of the world, it knew 
next to nothing respecting Spain's colonial possessions in 
America, for the simple reason that all, except Spanish 
subjects, were barred admittance to these jealously guarded 
territories. It was only when the learned works of the 
missionaries began to issue from the presses of Europe 
that the veil of mystery which had so long hung over the 
greater part of the New World was finally lifted. Then, 
for the first time, was it possible to have anything like re- 
liable information respecting the geography, the fauna and 
the flora of the Spanish colonies, or exact knowledge re- 
specting the languages, manners and customs of their 
countless and diverse tribes. 1 

1 For further information respecting this interesting topic see the chapter 
on "The Battlegrounds and the Achievements of the Conquistadores of the 
Cross," in the author's "Along the Andes and Down the Amazon." 

370 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

But, although many of the works of these scholarly 
soldiers of the cross were published shortly after they were 
written, a very large number of them were allowed to 
remain in manuscript for centuries. Thus the great "His- 
toria de las Indias," of Las Casas, was not given to the 
press until more than three centuries after it had left the 
hands of its immortal author. In a similar manner the 
manuscript of the important ' ' Historia General de el Eeyno 
de Chile," by Padre Rosales, did not find a publisher until 
more than two centuries after it was penned by the in- 
defatigable missionary. We have seen that the "Diarios" 
of Friar Menendez were so completely lost sight of for more 
than a century that the noted explorer, Francisco Fonck, 
who followed in the footsteps of the eminent Franciscan, 
and who eventually became the commentator of these pre- 
cious documents, was, during the time of his explorations, 
entirely unaware of their existence. How much more light 
will eventually be thrown on Spanish America during 
colonial times when the manuscripts which are still lying 
in the dust-laden archives of Europe and America will 
have given to the world through the agency of the press it 
is impossible even to divine. Judging by the immense num- 
ber of volumes which have been published for the first 
time during the last few decades, the amount will be very 
great indeed. And we shall then find, as in the case of 
the Nahuelhuapi region, that many parts of South America, 
which are now thought to have been traversed for the first 
time by modern explorers, were in reality familiar to and 
fully described by learned missionaries two or three cen- 
turies ago. 

The work achieved by Padre Guillelmo in the little 
thatched hut on the shore of Lake Nahuelhuapi was but 
in keeping with that accomplished by early missionaries 
throughout the length and breadth of Spanish America. 
Similar work under like trying conditions was performed 
by Padre Rivero on the Casanare and the Meta, by Padre 

371 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Sobreviela on the Ucayli, and by Padre Falkner in Pata- 
gonia. The book on Patagonia, by the last-named mission- 
ary, is declared by snch an authority as Senor Fonck to 
be "a veritable treasure." "Few new countries," con- 
tinues this distinguished author and explorer, "can glory, 
like Patagonia, in possessing a fundamental work of such 
merit on their primitive condition. The memory of the 
learned English missionary will remain engraved with 
indelible letters in the history of South America's South- 
land." 1 

To realize fully our obligations to the early missionary 
explorers, we must not lose sight of the difficulties under 
which they were obliged to labor. Besides traversing lands 
which were absolutely unknown and pushing their way 
through dense forests where their lives might, at any mo- 
ment, be cut short by the poisoned arrow of a concealed 
savage, they had frequently to suffer from lack of shelter 
and from the almost total want of provisions. Thus, for 
weeks at a time, Menendez and his companions were forced 
to subsist on cornmeal and water and to continue their 
marches through swamps and over mountains with little 
or no cover during the rainstorms which frequently lasted 
weeks at a time. How different is it with our modern 
explorers who are so abundantly provided with all kinds 
of canned goods, with water-proof garments, and sleeping- 
bags, portable canvas boats, and specially devised tents 
which insure protection from rain and the insect pests of the 
tropics ! With all the marvels of equipment now available, 
the undertakings of present-day explorers are as picnics 
in comparison with those of their predecessors of two or 
three centuries ago. 

The dinner which was given by our hosts on the even- 

1 Op. cit., p. 120. The reader who is interested in the explorations of 
Father Falkner, will read with profit his work entitled "A Description of 
Patagonia and the Adjoining Parts of South America," Hereford, 1774, and 
"Thomas Falkner 's Nachricht von der Moluchisen Sprache, " by Julius Platz- 
mann, Leipsic, 1899. 

372 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

ing of our arrival at Bariloche was in many respects quite 
a remarkable affair. All the notables of the town were 
invited, and they were fairly representative of the type 
of pioneers who are nocking from all parts of the world to 
this distant borderland of Argentina. And the gathering 
was a most cordial one, and as interesting as it was cordial. 
The conversation soon became quite animated, and, to our 
surprise, as if by common consent, it turned on literature 
— about the last topic one would expect to be discussed in 
a young frontier town on the confines of civilization. My 
Italian friend, with the Bavarian wife and fair-haired chil- 
dren, waxed eloquent on Dante, and recited several pas- 
sages from the "Divina Commedia" with stirring effect. 
A neighbor of his, a graduate of a German university, was 
equally eloquent on Goethe and Schiller. In the course of 
his remarks he gave a quotation in Greek, from the Iliad. 
This at once opened up a spirited conversazione on the 
Greek and Latin classics which was participated in by the 
majority of those present. Quotations from favorite 
authors were numerous and the fleeting hours passed un- 
observed. If a stranger had entered the room, after our 
discussion had fairly started, he would surely have thought 
that he had come upon a literary club at one of its regular 
reunions. 

The following morning we were all up and taking our 
coffee before the break of dawn. We had before us a long 
journey of nearly four hundred miles across the Patagonian 
desert and we wished, if possible, to make this in two 
days, at most. By five o'clock we were all comfortably 
seated in three new Mercedes automobiles which had been 
provided for us by the courteous governor of Neuquen, 
who, with a couple of government officials, had come to 
escort us to his capital. 

It was a delightful spring morning when we left 
Bariloche and its hospitable people who had assembled to 
bid us Godspeed on our long journey across the arid plains 

373 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

of Patagonia. We were enthusiastic about the trip before 
us, but the knowing- ones warned us of probable mishaps 
and delays. "Be prepared to sleep on the ground and 
to live on short rations," said one of our party, who was 
familiar with the country which we were to traverse, "for 
it will be extraordinary, if we reach our destination on 
schedule time. ' ' 

For the first hour everything went well. We made good 
time and we felt sure that by nightfall half of our journey 
across the desert would be completed. But just as we were 
beginning to congratulate ourselves on the fair weather and 
the speed we were making, our rear car encountered a 
marshy spot and was at once hopelessly mired. This de- 
layed us for two full hours. Not long after our first acci- 
dent we had a similar mischance. We had counted on hav- 
ing desayuno at nine o'clock, but, owing to these two unto- 
ward stops, we were not able to breakfast until two o 'clock 
in the afternoon. This delay of five hours did not, however, 
seem to inconvenience any of our party. But we were all 
glad when we reached Pilcaniyeu, a small rancheria, where 
we had an enjoyable luncheon a la Gaucho. The piece de 
resistance consisted of a barbacued sheep, the famous asado 
al asador, which has long been a favorite article of food 
with the people of the Pampa. 1 There is only one other 

1 There was a time, however, when the prejudice of the Gauchos against 
mutton was so great that they would not eat it. There was then a saying 
among them that carnero no es came — mutton is not meat. Even the beggars 
declined it as food. But this was when these gentry, with their wooden 
licenses hanging around their necks, were wont to make their rounds on horse- 
back and ask una limosna por el amor de Bios — an alms for the love of God. 
At the time referred to, it may be remarked, horses were so cheap that a good 
animal could be had for less than a dollar and sheep were sold for three shil- 
lings a dozen. Sheep were then killed solely for the wool and tallow they 
yielded, while their carcasses were fed to the hogs, or used as fuel for brick- 
kilns. Cattle, during the period in question, were so abundant that they were 
slaughtered only for their hides, while their carcasses were strewn over the 
Pampa as food for birds and" beasts of prey. How different is it today, when 
Argentine beef and mutton are such valuable articles of export and so eagerly 
sought in the markets of Europe and the United States! 

374 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

dish, which, the Gaucho loves more, and that is asado con 
cuero — beef broiled with the hide. 

We met a number of Indians at Pilcaniyeu who were 
the representatives of a race that is rapidly disappearing. 
They were at one time very numerous in this part of Argen- 
tina, but since General Eoca's campaign against them in 
1878, only a few of them now remain, and these, if not 
civilized, are quite harmless. To pay the expenses of this 
campaign, the government sold vast tracts of valuable lands 
at the rate of a few cents an acre. Most of it, unfortu- 
nately, fell into the hands of speculators who realized un- 
told millions from their investments. For much of the land 
enhanced in value from ten- to a hundredfold within a few 
years. But, as an outsider looks at this transaction, the 
whole affair, while affording temporary relief to the gov- 
ernment, involved in the long run an immense loss to the 
Eepublic at large. As it was, a number of privileged indi- 
viduals made fortunes at the expense of the commonwealth. 
Had the government followed the example of the United 
States and divided this vast territory up into small plots 
and offered them as free homesteads to prospective immi- 
grants, it is safe to say that Argentina would today count 
among her population several millions of people who sought 
homes in our own country and elsewhere. Latifundia of 
this kind have militated as strongly against the best 
interests of Argentina as have those vast landed estates 
which have been inherited by the descendants of the 
Conquistadores. 

The country through which we passed during the first 
day was much like that of southern Wyoming or northern 
New Mexico. The land was slightly undulating and broken 
here and there by low hills and mountains. Most of it 
was covered with a hardy pasto duro resembling the buffalo 
and bunch grasses of our grazing plains in the Far West. 
We saw many herds of cattle and troops of horses, and, 
notwithstanding the apparent paucity of nourishing pas- 

375 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

ture, they all seemed in good condition. Except along the 
occasional watercourses, which were almost dry at the time 
of our visit, the country was almost treeless. Clumps of 
sturdy jarillas, sampas and algarrobillas were visible here 
and there, but otherwise the land was almost bare of all 
forms of vegetation, save scattered tufts of the hardy pasto 
duro. This, even in a soil parched by a broiling sun, re- 
tained sufficient vitality to support numerous flocks and 
herds, which are the chief means of subsistence of the sparse 
population in this poorly watered part of the Republic. 

Before leaving Chile, we had been told that we should 
find an abundance of game on our way from Bariloche to 
Neuquen. We looked for it, however, in vain. The only 
things which our hunters saw which were worth shooting 
were a small number of emus, which quickly got beyond the 
range of our Nimrods' rifles. The emus and the guanacos 
were formerly so numerous that they supplied the wild 
Indians with a great part of their food. But the guanaco, 
it is said, is rapidly disappearing, as is also the graceful 
vicuna, which, as well as the guanaco, is a near relative 
of the llama and the alpaca. From the stomach and intes- 
tines of the guanaco, as also from certain other animals, 
the natives obtain the bezoar stone, which has long been 
highly prized in many parts of the world as a talisman 
and as an antidote to poison. I was assured that it is 
still sold as a drug in certain apothecary shops in southern 
Chile and that many of the common people there, as well 
as the Indians, ascribe to it all the marvelous properties 
which have been attributed to it by the Chinese for ages 
past. 

Many writers on South America tell us that the use of 
poisoned arrows is restricted to a few tribes in the basins 
of the Orinoco and the Amazon. As a matter of fact, their 
employment is almost universal throughout the length and 
the breadth of the continent. The Indians of Patagonia have 
used them from the time of the conquest, and, most prob- 

376 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

ably, employed them long before. Similarly, the boleadora, 
which is often spoken of as a Gaucho invention, was a com- 
mon weapon among the Indians of the Pampa and was 
in general use, as Argentine archaeology teaches, in early 
prehistoric times. It was with the boleadora, or bolas, as 
Menendez informs us, that the Puelches and the Poyas 
tribes which inhabited the Nahuelhuapi region were wont to 
capture the emu and the guanaco, the latter of which sup- 
plied them with clothing as well as food. 1 

We had hoped to reach our stopping-place for the night, 
before sunset. But our long detentions on the way made 
this impossible. Towards nightfall dark, lowering clouds 
and distant thunder warned of an approaching storm. 
"Habra una tormenta" — there will be a hurricane — ex- 
claimed our chauffeur, and all of us began to prepare for a 
drenching, and to contemplate the disagreeable probability 
of spending the night on the roadside, without food or shel- 
ter. But finally, after ten o 'clock, we reached a small adobe 
building which was a combination of a grocery, a drygoods 
store and a country inn. There the Governor, after rous- 
ing the sleeping proprietor, was able to obtain for us a very 
frugal meal, and shelter from the threatening storm. Aside 
from a single room with four beds in it, there was no place 
in which to sleep, except on the bare ground of the nar- 
row store. As there was not room enough for all of our 
party inside of the building, without overcrowding, several 
of the younger members elected to sleep outside. Fortu- 

1 Menendez has an interesting paragraph on the food, clothing and arms 
of the Indians, as well as on their method of securing game, which is worthy of 
being reproduced here in the original: 

' ' Todos, ' ' he writes, ' ' se mantienen de huanacos, avestruces y caballos ; 
tambien tiennen alguna quinoa, trigo y cebada; pero estas semillas no son 
muehas, ni permanentes, porque no cultivan la tierra; sino que las arrojan en 
las laderas de los arroyos, y lo que sale lo coge el primero que llega. Su ves- 
tido es de pieles de huanacos bien bruhido y pintado. Sus armas son bolas 
atadas en las puntas del lazo que llaman laqui con el que cogen los animales. 
Usan de arco y flecha, y algunos tienen puilales pequeiios, que los compran a 
los Pehuenches. " Op. cit., p. 319. 

377 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

nately for them, the dreaded tormenta proved to be a wind- 
storm unaccompanied by rain. Colonel Roosevelt seemed 
to be glad to have an opportunity to renew his cowboy 
experiences, and, spreading his poncho on the ground, he 
stretched himself upon it and was soon fast asleep. It had 
been agreed, however, before we retired, that we should 
be up at an early hour the following morning. We had 
yet two hundred and fifty miles to make before reaching 
Neuquen and we were bent on arriving there the follow- 
ing evening, if at all possible. The Colonel promised to 
give the signal for rising. Promptly, at three o'clock, we 
were startled by something like a Sioux war-whoop. ' ' Are 
the Pehuenches attacking us?" asked a startled dreamer 
next to me. I assured him they were not, for I had im- 
mediately recognized the prolonged stentorian "Whoo-oo- 
oop-ee!" as the Colonel's promised signal for rising. In a 
very short time we had dressed, taken a cup of coffee and 
were again merrily speeding towards the rising sun. 

The region which we traversed that day was like a 
section of the Sahara. It was sandy, and, aside from some 
scrubby brushwood, was almost entirely devoid of vegeta- 
tion. The heat was intense, but, thanks to the dry atmos- 
phere and the speed of our motor-cars, which developed a 
good breeze, we did not experience any discomfort. Almost 
the only human habitations were small adobe shops — 
boliches — kept by Turks. How they can eke out an exist- 
ence for themselves and families in their tumbledown hovels 
is a marvel. But that they can reconcile themselves to 
such isolation, in the heart of the desert, is a greater marvel. 
And yet they seem to prosper and to be contented. One 
finds Turkish shopkeepers and Turkish peddlers all over 
Argentina. They have long been a thorn in the side of 
small country merchants who feel keenly the active competi- 
tion of these enterprising Moslems. The number of Turks 
now living in the Eepublic is nearly a hundred thousand, 
and this is rapidly augmented by immigration. 

378 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

As we approached our destination, the sandy roads be- 
came so heavy that further progress seemed impossible. 
Frequently we were obliged to get out of our car and walk. 
In particularly bad spots, it was necessary for us to put 
our shoulders to the wheels of our machines in order to 
get them forward. At last the road became so bad that 
we began to despair of reaching our destination that day, 
as we had so eagerly desired. But when the outlook seemed 
hopeless, a beneficent deus ex machina suddenly appeared 
in the shape of a troop of horsemen. They proved to be 
a number of Gauchos, provided with strong leather lariats, 
who had been sent to our relief. Attaching one end of their 
lariat to the pommel of their saddle and the other to the 
front of the automobile, these Gauchos, by acting in con- 
cert, were soon able to extricate us from our predicament. 

When we reached the Rio Limai, We found its waters 
so agitated by a sudden borrasca that those in charge of 
the ferry declared that it would be impossible to cross it 
until the storm should subside. But the thought of being 
delayed by a passing squall, when we were only a few miles 
from Neuquen, could not be entertained by us for a moment. 
Finally, after some vigorous talk by one of our party, the 
ferrymen reluctantly consented to take us across the river, 
but solemnly declared that they would not be responsible 
for our lives in the probable event of a catastrophe. The 
poor fellows were unduly alarmed, for we were soon safe 
and sound on the opposite shore and pushing on to Neu- 
quen as fast as our cars could take us. 

The gathering gloom prevented us from getting more 
than a glimpse of the well-irrigated lands through which 
we passed. We saw enough, however, to convince us that 
this part of Argentina — so long regarded as a useless waste 
— is destined to have a great future. When the great irri- 
gation works connected with and fed by the colossal Cuenca 
Vidal — a natural reservoir which has more than three times 
the capacity of the noted Egyptian reservoir at Assuan — 

379 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

will have been completed, more than a million acres of 
most fertile land will be opened to cultivation and the valley 
of the Eio Negro will equal in productiveness the famed 
valley of the Nile. 

When we finally reached Neuquen, after our day's whirl 
of two hundred and fifty miles through the desert, dark- 
ness had long settled over this distant verge of the Pampa. 
But, notwithstanding this, all the inhabitants were at the 
railway station to greet us. After the usual speeches and 
the usual national anthems by the band and the usual vivas, 
we boarded the special train which was waiting to take us 
to Bahia Blanca, the enterprising seaport on the Atlantic. 
Although we had had a rather strenuous day, our intense 
enjoyment of the trip had rendered us almost insensible 
to hunger and fatigue. It was only after we had entered 
the gayly decked dining-car and sat down to the sumptuous 
repast which had been prepared for us that we fully realized 
that we had been a long time without a substantial meal 
and that repose in the luxurious staterooms of the private 
car of the President of the Bepublic would be as grateful 
as it was necessary. 

The rain which, according to the prophets, was to drench 
us on our way across the Andes and the desert held off 
until shortly before our train started for Bahia Blanca. 
We had had ideal weather all the way from Puerto Varas 
to Neuquen, and had enjoyed every hour of our memorable 
journey across the southern part of the continent. It could 
not have been more pleasant or made under more favorable 
auspices. The courteous governor of Neuquen, Senor Don 
Eduardo Elordi, was untiring in his efforts to make our 
journey through his territory as pleasant and as com- 
fortable as possible. When, on parting, he said to each of 
us, " Adiosl Feliz Viaje," we felt that we were bidding 
adieu to a man of rare hidalguia and goodness of heart, one 
whom his countrymen would designate as muy caballero — a 
perfect gentleman. 

380 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

The morning after leaving Neuqnen we were in the flour- 
ishing city of Bahia Blanca. Although its real birth dates 
back scarcely a generation, it already ranks third among 
the nation's shipping centers, being surpassed as a port 
of entry only by Rosario and Buenos Aires. So great is 
the foreign trade at this point and so promising is its fu- 
ture that it is already spoken of as the Liverpool of Ar- 
gentina. Through a number of important railroads which 
converge at this point, it controls the commerce of the 
southern part of the Republic. Its wheat elevators are 
among the largest and best constructed in the world. The 
city is thoroughly modern in appearance and in its methods 
of transacting business. It has broad streets, large and 
well-planned parks, and imposing edifices, many of which 
are gems of architecture. 

Some twenty miles to the southwest of Bahia Blanca 
is Puerto Militar, the chief naval station of Argentina. 
The arsenals and dockyards at the time of our visit were 
being greatly enlarged to meet the demands of the na- 
tion's growing fleet. When I expressed my surprise at 
the immense size of the new docks which were rapidly, 
nearing completion, an admiral who was standing near 
me said, smiling: "They are made extra large to receive 
our new super-dreadnaughts, the Moreno and the Riva- 
davia, which your enterprising Mr. Schwab is building for 
us. I tell you it was a great surprise to European ship- 
builders when they learned that Mr. Schwab was awarded 
the contract for building those monster warships. Even 
our own people were surprised, for they had been led to 
believe by his competitors that it was impossible to con- 
struct such leviathans in the United States. Now, however, 
that this wide-awake head of the Bethlehem Steel Corpora- 
tion has also secured the contract for erecting Chile's coast 
defenses, the stock of American gun and warship manu- 
facturers has made an enormous advance in the estimation 
of everybody in South America." Having heard substan- 

381 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tially the same statement made by a Chilean naval official 
at Talcuhuano, I was convinced, more than ever before, 
that our American manufacturers have little to fear in 
South America from European competition. Business of 
all kinds is there awaiting them. All they have to do is 
to go after it with true Yankee determination and it is 
theirs. 

A breakfast given in our honor by the admiral of the 
fleet on his flagship afforded us an opportunity of meeting 
many of the officials of the Argentine navy. Like their 
friends of the Chilean navy, they are a splendid body of 
men — courteous, educated and worthy representatives of 
the best type of Argentine manhood. 

Equally delightful was a reception given us at the lead- 
ing club of the city by the chief citizens of Bahia Blanca. 
Among them were several English, French and German 
business men who have large interests in Argentina. It 
was there that we had to forego another pleasure similar 
to the one which we had to deny ourselves when we were 
obliged to decline the princely offer of our Chilean hosts 
to take us to the Straits of Magellan and back in a special 
cruiser. Thinking only of our pleasure, our Argentine 
hosts had put a trim steamer at our disposition to convey 
us to Buenos Aires and thence by the majestic Parana to 
the famous falls of Iguazu. But lack of time prevented our 
accepting the gracious offer of our generous hosts. Sev- 
eral members of our expedition were eagerly awaiting us 
on the upper Paraguay, where we had agreed to meet them 
at a certain date, and we felt constrained to keep our prom- 
ise to join them at the appointed time. 

' ' Never have I found renunciation so trying, ' ' said one 
of our party to me, "as in foregoing these two trips to 
the falls of Iguazu and to the Straits of Magellan. But," 
he added philosophically, "one cannot have everything one 
desires. Besides, we have already seen so much of South 
America and had such a glorious time among its hospitable 

,382 



MOTORING IN PATAGONIA 

people that we should esteem ourselves fortunate and 
feel more than grateful for the unique experiences which 
we have already enjoyed." 

Our journey by rail from Bahia Blanca took us through 
one of the richest wheat and grazing belts in Argentina. 
But we were greatly disappointed by the appearance of 
the wheatfields. A protracted drought had reduced the 
year's harvest to a small fraction of the normal yield. For- 
tunately, the loss in this part of the country was, in a 
measure, compensated by abundant harvests in other sec- 
tions of the Republic. 

I was surprised at the number of rabbits which we 
saw skipping over the Pampa at the approach of the train. 
They seemed to be as numerous as jack-rabbits in cer- 
tain parts of Texas. As night was falling, my attention 
was attracted by a lone armadillo, the first I had seen in 
Argentina. It was evidently frightened by the noise of 
the passing train, as it was scurrying off to cover as fast 
as its little legs could take it. How puny it was in com- 
parison with its giant relative, the glyptodon, which flour- 
ished hereabouts during the Pleistocene ! It was at Punta 
Alta, near Bahia Blanca, that Darwin discovered so many 
fossil remains of those marvelous animals which, during 
recent geological times, roamed over the Pampa. He de- 
clares that this point is "a perfect catacomb for monsters 
of extinct races. 1 

Near Monte Hermoso we passed through the region in 
which the Argentine geologist, Dr. Ameghino, located the 
Garden of Eden. It was here that he discovered what he 
maintained was a portion of the skeleton of the first man, 
to whom he gave the imposing name Tetraprothomo Argen- 
tinus. I did not, however, experience any thrill at the 
thought of being in this erstwhile Argentine Eden. I had 
visited the reputed sites of too many other Edens, in va- 
rious parts of the Old and the New World, to be impressed 

1 Journal of Researches, Chap. IV. 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

by Dr. AmegMno's discovery. And then, too, I asked my- 
self if his reasons for locating the home of our race in 
the vicinity of Monte Hermoso were any more conclusive 
than those of the patriotic Bolivian scholar, Emeterio Vil- 
lamil, who maintained that the site of the Garden of Eden 
was on the eastern slope of mighty Sorata, or those of 
a Boston investigator who, some years ago, wrote a good- 
sized volume to prove that the Paradise of our first parents 
was situated somewhere near the North Pole. 1 

"We remained in Buenos Aires barely long enough to 
make a few final preparations for our long-planned expedi- 
tion into the Brazilian jungle. We were all so eager to get 
started that we were impatient of any further delay and 
were rejoiced exceedingly when at the last our faces were 
turned towards the land of the heart's desire, the great 
Brazilian selva, in the basin of the Amazon. 

1 See ' ' Paradise Found, the Cradle of the Human Eaee at the North Pole, ' ' 
by W. F. Warren. Boston, 1885. 

It may here be remarked that, as a result of the most searching investiga- 
tion, Mr. Ales Hrdlicka, curator of the division of physical anthropology in 
the United States Natural Museum, finds that of the two skeletal remains on 
which Sr. Ameghino based his fantastic theory regarding Tetraprothomo Ar- 
gentinus one belonged to "a relatively modern man," — probably an Indian of 
a recently exterminated tribe, — while the other belonged "to some ancient 
branch of the cat family. ' ' As to the much exploited notions of Ameghino, 
Lehman-Nitsche and others respecting the fabulous antiquity of man in South 
America, Mr. Hrdlicka declares that the evidence thus far furnished "fails 
to establish the claim that in South America there have been brought forth 
thus far any tangible traces of either geologically ancient man himself or of 
any precursors of the human race. ' ' Cf . ' ' Early Man in South America, ' ' pp. 
385, 386, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 52, 
Washington, 1912. 



CHAPTER XYII 
IN GUAEANILAND 

Until recently, the only practical way of reaching the 
capital of Paraguay, from Buenos Aires, was by steamer 
on the Parana and Paraguay rivers. Shortly before our 
arrival, however, these two cities had been connected by 
rail, and, conformably to our itinerary, we effected this 
part of our journey by train instead of making it by boat. 
We had been strongly advised against undertaking this long 
overland trip of a full thousand miles. An American who 
had been over the road a short time before was particu- 
larly insistent in trying to dissuade us from setting out 
on what he declared would surely be a most uncomfortable 
and unsatisfactory journey. ' ' The road, ' ' he declared, ' ' is 
in an almost impassable condition. The roadbed is wretched 
and the rails are so poorly laid that you are liable to run 
off the track at any moment. It is impossible to run trains 
on schedule time and you may be delayed a week in reaching 
your destination. Go by boat, by all means, and you will 
not only travel with every comfort, but you will also have 
the ' satisfaction of knowing when you will arrive at 
Asuncion. ' ' 

But we were deaf to all this well-meant advice. We 
had been similarly warned against the overland journey be- 
tween Eio de Janeiro and Montevideo, as well as against 
the one between Puerto Varas and Neuquen, both of which 
we had made with untold pleasure and profit. Whether it 
was because we had been so favored during all our pre- 
vious experiences, or because we had more faith in the 
Argentine Central, Entre Eios and Paraguayan Central 

385 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Eailway than our solicitous friend, we felt instinctively that 
all would be well, and that our journey by rail between 
Buenos Aires and Asuncion would be in every way agree- 
able and memorable. And, as the sequel will show, we were 
not mistaken. 

There were several reasons which impelled us to choose 
the land in preference to the water route. We wished to see 
the Argentine Mesopotamia — that wonderfully fertile land 
encircled by the Parana and the Uruguay, which holds the 
promise of a future as glorious as its past has been fa- 
mous. But above all we wished — or at least I wished — to 
traverse the territory which was once the scene of the 
activities of that remarkable "Christian Indian State" 
known in history as "The Seductions of Paraguay." 

A couple of hours after leaving Buenos Aires, we found 
ourselves on a mammoth steel ferryboat which conveyed 
our train across the broad and far-famed Parana. As we 
spent several hours on this noble waterway, we were able 
to note all its most characteristic features. Like the Ama- 
zon and the Orinoco near their embouchures, the Parana, 
where we crossed it, is a maze of islands and meandering 
channels from which no one but an expert pilot can extri- 
cate himself. 

As I surveyed the landscape from the upper deck of 
our boat, my heart fairly leapt at the splendor of the 
view. The broad emerald Pampa and the palm-decked 
islands were bathed in the crimson rays of the setting sun. 
A delicious languor seemed to hang upon the air and a 
strange, heavenly peace appeared to have fallen upon this 
enchanting spot. The broad panorama glowed with color 
and magic. The river was as silent and as motionless as 
a haunted mere. The stately palms, with their noble 
crowns, cast masses of shadow over the darkening waters, 
while the wild, untrained tangle of underbrush on both sides 
of the calmly flowing flood seemed to be the natural haunts 
of savage beasts and more savage men. Nothing could have 

386 



IN GUAEANILAND 

surpassed the enthralling beauty of the evening with its 
gentle voices and subdued colors, with the mysterious 
shapes and movements of trees and islands as they disap- 
peared in the dreamy distance with the rapidly approaching 
twilight. 

Then night fell over the scene and a slight pearly mist 
which had risen from the broad expanse of waters drew 
over the face of the earth a tremulous veil of gossamer. 
But the dark-blue sky was spangled with stars and the ris- 
ing moon, throwing a path of silver athwart the broad river, 
poured an opalescent sheen over the palni-crowned islands 
and flooded the mist-covered Pampa with ethereal white- 
ness. We were seemingly in a land of enchantment, but, 
in reality, we were in a region where legend whispers among 
the palm trees and trembles in the shivering wavelets of 
the moon-irradiate Parana. We were gliding over waters 
which witnessed the immortal deeds of Castilians and An- 
dalusians of pure blood and high traditions — men who cast 
a glamour over everything they touched, and invested with 
romance all the scenes of their matchless prowess and 
brilliant exploits. 

It was easy here to conjure up noted personages of 
the long ago. For the banks of the Parana are dotted with 
historic sites and teem with associations connected with 
discoverers and with the Conquistadores. The Amazon, 
the Orinoco and the Magdalena are famous in the annals 
of exploration and conquest, but they must all yield the 
palm to the great river of the south, which, under the vary- 
ing names of the Parana, the Paraguay and the Eio de 
la Plata, has witnessed more stirring exploits and far- 
reaching achievements than any other waterway in the 
Western Hemisphere. 

"Suppress in imagination," writes the Paraguayan his- 
torian, Dr. Manuel Dominguez, "the turbulent and drama- 
tic Rio de la Plata, which lured to its shores the first ven- 
turous navigators; suppose that there were no solution 

387 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

of continuity between its two banks, and you at once sup- 
press the first steps of the Conquest. . . . Observe that in 
this hypothesis we should not have the history of Solis, 
nor the history of Cabot, nor the history of Mendoza. . . . 
Buenos Aires would not be where it now stands." 1 And 
were it not for the Paraguay, Ayolas and Irala and Alvar 
Nunez would not have astonished the world by their mar- 
velous feats of exploration in the interior of an unknown 
continent, nor would they have founded the city of Asuncion, 
which was not only the capital of Paraguay, but was also, 
for a long time, the chief administrative center of the 
greater part of the continent from the Laguna de los 
Xarayes to the Strait of Magellan. 

It was only twenty years after Columbus dropped anchor 
off Guanahuani that Juan Diaz de Solis, chief pilot of 
Spain, entered the mar dulce, the sweet-water sea, formed 
by the mouth of what the natives called the Parana Guazu, 
the great Parana. In honor of the daring navigator, this 
majestic river was for a time known as the Eio Solis. After 
the tragic death of Solis, at the hands of the ruthless Char- 
ruas, the next adventurer to steer his ocean-tossed caravels 
into the tawny waters of the mar dulce was the Venetian 
navigator, Sebastian Cabot, who, in company with his fa- 
ther and brothers, had previously discovered Newfoundland 
and a portion of the neighboring continent. His first ob- 
jective was the Moluccas, whence Magellan's famous ship, 
La Victoria, had just returned, after the first circumnaviga- 
tion of the world, laden with spices and other precious prod- 
ucts of the mystic and alluring East. Cabot's ambition, like 
that of his illustrious predecessor, Christopher Columbus, 
was to discover Ophir, Tharsis and Cipango, and return 
to Spain with his ships laden with gold and silver and the 
spices and the precious stones for which those countries 
were then so famed throughout Europe. 

But Cabot, instead of proceeding to the Moluccas by 

1 " Constitution del Paraguay,' 7 Tom. I, p. 73. Asuncion, 1909. 



IN GUARANILAND 

way of the Strait of Magellan, as lie had agreed to do in 
his capitulation with Charles V, determined, on his arrival 
at the mouth of the Rio Solis, to explore that great river 
on one of whose banks its ill-fated discoverer had a short 
time previously met such a tragic death. He ascended the 
Parana as far as its confluence with the Paraguay and, 
according to certain early writers, sailed up the last- 
named river until he was almost in sight of the elevated 
bank on which Asuncion now stands. It was during this 
voyage of discovery that Cabot secured from the natives 
a number of silver plates and ornaments. He concluded, 
forthwith, that there were mines of silver in the country 
which was drained by the great river which he was navi- 
gating and he, accordingly, gave it the name of Eio de la 
Plata, Silver River, instead of Rio Solis. 1 

It was these plates of silver which Cabot found near 
the Parana, or the Paraguay, and the name Rio de la Plata, 
which he bestowed on this great waterway, that gave rise to 
countless legends rivaling those of Mexico or Peru. The 
entire La Plata region soon became, in public estimation, 
a country of exhaustless mines and fabulous wealth — a re- 
gion, too, of mystery and enchantment. 

As, for lack of means, Cabot was not able to continue 
the work of exploration on the Silver River, it was under- 
taken by Pedro de Mendoza, the noted founder of Buenos 
Aires. One of the stipulations made by the Spanish mon- 
arch was that Mendoza was to open up communication 
with the land of the Incas. With this object in view, he 
sent one of his lieutenants, Juan de Ayolas, up the Para- 
guay. The legends that had been woven in consequence 
of Cabot's finding silver among the aborigines soon gave 

1 From the time of Cabot 's voyage, ' ' The river Parana, ' ' quaintly writes 
Padre Techo, ' ' on account of Gavot 's silver, or the hope of much silver to be 
found there, was called the river of Plate, a name rather specious than true. ' ' 
" The History of the Provinces of Paraguay, Tucuman, Eio de la Plata, Parana, 
Guaira, and Urvaica and Something of the Kingdom of Chile, in South Amer- 
ica." In Churchill's "Collection of Voyages and Travels," Vol, IV, p. 641, 

389 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

rise to other legends, each more extravagant than the 
others. Whether Mencloza and Ayolas were actuated by 
them or not, it was not long before everyone in the vast ter- 
ritory of Paraguay, "The Giant of the Indian Provinces," 
was in a fever of excitement about the stories of El Dorado 
and the marvels of the Enchanted City of the Cassars — 
known among the Guaranis as Elelin, or Yungulo or 
Trapalanda — and the no less wonderful Gran Paititi which, 
rumor had it, was somewhere in the mysterious regions of 
the Moxos, or in the unexplored selvas of Brazil. The epoch 
of the Conquistadores was an epoch of illusions, of ignes 
fatui, and in no part of South America did these illusions 
cast a more potent spell over the conquerors than it did 
over the iron-hearted adventurers in the vast territory so 
long known as the Province of La Plata. But more about 
this in the following chapter. 

After spending four delightful hours on the Parana, 
one of the great rivers of the world, we again boarded our 
train at Ibicuy on the left bank of the Parana. We were 
now in the famed Mesopotamia of Argentina, one of the 
most fertile parts of the Eepublic, and, since the completion 
of the railroad between Buenos Aires and Asuncion, one of 
the most promising and progressive. All along the line 
in the provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes we found 
flourishing towns and villages provided with electric lights 
and trolley cars and modern buildings in lieu of the one- 
story adobe structures of colonial times. The broad plains 
through which we passed were devoted to grazing and agri- 
culture. Everywhere were immense flocks and herds, all 
apparently in prime condition. The owners of many of the 
estancias take special pride in their blooded stock, and one 
will find in Entre Rios and Corrientes as fine breeds of 
horses, cattle and sheep as in any part of the Republic. 

But, although greatly interested in the physical and eco- 
nomic aspects of the country, in its present condition and 
future promise, I must confess that I found my mind, while 

390 



IN GUARANILAND 

traversing this historic land, continually reverting to the 
storied past and musing on the exploits of the Conquista- 
dores in this part of Argentina and on the achievements of 
the heroes of the war of independence. I was particularly 
reminded of the struggles of the patriots on passing through 
Yapegu, a place which is sacred to every patriot of South 
America. For it was here that her great liberator, 
San Martin, first saw the light of day on February 25, 
1778. 

Scarcely less thought-provoking was a small place called 
Bonpland. This was named after the illustrious French 
naturalist, Aime Bonpland, who was the associate of Hum- 
boldt during his celebrated expedition to South America 
at the beginning of the last century. During this expedi- 
tion, which was of untold value to the world of science, 
M. Bonpland collected upwards of six thousand new species 
of plants. Some years subsequently, at the invitation of 
Eivadavia, the president of Argentina, he accepted the 
chair of pathology in the University of Buenos Aires. But 
the call of the wild soon lured him back to the plain and 
the forest, where he could live in intimate communion with 
that fecund nature which was his joy and his life. 

It was while engaged in his prolific researches that he 
fell into the hands of Dr. Francia, the notorious dictator of 
Paraguay. In spite of the efforts of Humboldt, of Bolivar, 
of the emperor of Brazil and of European monarchs who 
exerted all their influence to have the illustrious naturalist 
returned to Argentina, Bonpland was held a prisoner in 
Paraguay for nearly ten years. But his captivity caused 
less distress to himself than to his friends. For, although 
under constant surveillance, and not allowed to depart more 
than a league from his habitation, he was, even in his re- 
stricted environment, able to find unalloyed happiness in 
the wealth of nature which converted Cerrito, where he was 
so long detained, into a veritable paradise. 

A letter which Bonpland wrote to a friend in Paris gives 

391 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

an insight into the character of this ardent lover of na- 
ture. "I have led," he declares, "a life as happy as any 
man could lead who was deprived of all relations with his 
country, his family and his friends. The practice of medi- 
cine served to support existence. My services soon won me 
the love and respect of the inhabitants, who saluted with 
cordiality that Frenchman whom they saw with *naked feet, 
dressed like a criollo, with the floating shirt and pantaloons, 
as he went to visit their sick and to bring them courage 
and help. . . . Accustomed as I am now to a free life, to 
the shade of the magnificent American trees, to hear the 
songs of the birds which hang their nests above my head ; 
accustomed as I am, moreover, to seeing flowing at my 
feet the sparkling waters of streams, what should I find, 
in the place of all this, in those brilliant and aristocratic 
quarters of Paris 1 " * 

In spite of his long journeys and privations and cease- 
less activity, this great nature-lover attained the ripe age 
of eighty-four, and his biographer was able to say of him : 

Rien ne trouble sa fin; 
C'est le soir d'un beau jour. 2 

The government of Corrientes has honored itself by 
erecting a monument to the memory of the distinguished 
Frenchman, who, next to his eminent friend and companion, 
Alexander von Humboldt, did more than any other one 
man to make known to the world the marvels of the flora 
and fauna of South America. 

Not long after leaving the pueblo of Bonpland we en- 
tered the confines of what was once the happy region so 
beautifully designated by the Italian historian, Muratori, 
as Cristianesimo Felice. We were at last in that famous 

Quoted in "The Romance of the Rio Plate," Vol. II, pp. 399 and 400, 
by W. H. Koebel, London, 1914. 

2 Nothing troubles his passing ; it is the evening of a beautiful day. 

392 



IN GUAKANILAND 

land known in history as "The Reductions of Paraguay" 1 
— the scene of acts of devotion, of self-sacrifice and of sub- 
lime heroism in the cause of humanity which are unique in 
the annals of missionary endeavor in the New World, and 
unsurpassed in the long history of the Church's glorious 
apostolate. 

In his charming ' ' New Italian Sketches, ' ' that graceful 
and scholarly writer, John Adclington Symonds, to whom 
all students of the Renaissance are so deeply indebted, con- 
cludes an illuminating chapter on ' ' The Palace of Urbino ' ' 
by the statement that the "interchange between dead memo- 
ries and present life is the delight of travel." The truth of 
this assertion was borne in upon me as soon as we crossed 
the Parana on our way from Buenos Aires. For we then 
entered the southern area of that vast territory which 
was long dominated by the powerful Tupis, that extraor- 
dinary Indian tribe which had extended their conquests 
from the Rio de la Plata to the valley of the Amazon and 
which, under the name of Chacamas and Omaguas, had 
established themselves in the forest-clad regions drained 
by the Ucayali and Putumayo, and whose language, slightly 
modified by the missionaries, is the basis of that famous 
lingua geral which is still so extensively used by various 
tribes from the Rio de la Plata to the Amazon. But it was 
to the southern Tupis that my thoughts then turned, to 
those bold and adventurous aborigines who, in proud self- 
consciousness, called themselves Guaranis — Warriors. 

Yes, we were at last in Guaraniland ; in the land of those 
noble redmen who, in the heyday of missionary activity in 
South America, were gathered by the Jesuits into the most 
interesting theocratic community of which there is any 
record. 

1 The name "Reductions, as Charlevoix informs us, was ' ' Usually given in 
Peru to all the Christian towns formed among the infidels, and governed by- 
regular priests. . . . Loreto was the first in Paraguay to which it was given. ' ' 
"The History of Paraguay," Vol. I, pp. 247, 248, London, 1769. 

393 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

The reductions, or mission colonies of Paraguay, had 
their inception in the first decade of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. Their origin was not due, as is frequently asserted, 
to the ambition of their founders to establish in the wilds 
of subtropical America a government independent of the 
Spanish Crown, and modeled after the fantastic Sun State 
of Campanella. They were the outcome of the desire of 
the missionaries, whose efforts were cordially seconded 
by Philip III, to liberate the Indians from the cruelties 
of the mita and encomienda systems ; to protect them from 
the iniquities of the slave-hunting Mamelukes, and thus to 
prepare them for a cheerful and intelligent reception of 
the truths of the Gospel. They were translations into action 
of the bull of Pope Paul III, who declared that the Indians 
were human beings with immortal souls and that they 
should be treated as such. It was in accordance with the 
humane policy of Philip III, which demanded that ' ' the In- 
dian should be as free as the Spaniard"; with the ceduld 
real which he issued in 1606, in which Hernandarias de 
Saavedra, the then governor of Paraguay, was notified that, 
"even if he could conquer the Indians of the Parana by 
force of arms, he must not do so, but must gain them over 
solely through the sermons and instructions of the reli- 
gious who had been sent for that purpose. ' ' They were an 
extension and an elaboration of the system employed by 
the Dominicans on the Napo; by the Franciscans on the 
lower Orinoco; by the distinguished founder of the Uni- 
versity of Cordoba, Fray Fernando de Trejo y Sanabria, 
the illustrious bishop of Tucuman, who founded schools and 
colleges for Indians; by Santo Toribio, the second arch- 
bishop of Peru, who devoted the greater part of his apos- 
tolic career to the welfare of the aborigines; by the im- 
mortal Las Casas, who so eloquently pleaded the cause of 
the children of the forests in the courts of kings and em- 
perors, and who, as bishop of Guatemala, succeeded in 
bringing into the fold of Christ the most savage tribes, and 

394 



IN GUARANILAND 

of converting La Provincia de Guerra — the Province of War 
— into La Provincia de Vera Paz — the Province of True 
Peace — a name which it bears to this day. 

The first reductions were established in the Province 
of Guayra, which now forms a part of the present Brazil- 
ian state of Parana. But the frequent incursions of the 
ruthless and relentless Mamelukes made their stay in this 
region impossible. For in a single year, 1630, these con- 
scienceless marauders murdered or carried off into slav- 
ery no fewer than thirty thousand of the mission Indians. 
It was, therefore, necessary to transfer the reductions and 
the neophytes composing them to a place where they would 
not be molested by the soulless Mamelukes. The asylum 
chosen was the fertile territory now occupied by and ad- 
joining the present state of Misiones, in Argentina. 

Here they prospered, and, for nearly a century and a 
half, led a life which was the admiration of the world. 
Their rapid progress from savagery to civilization was 
remarkable. A few years sufficed to convert them from 
semi-nomads into stable and contented denizens of the re- 
ductions. They soon became masters in all kinds of arts 
and crafts. The best evidence of this was the splendid 
churches which they, under the direction of the Jesuits, 
erected in all the principal reductions. "Many of these 
edifices," Charlevoix assures us, "would not disgrace the 
greatest cities in Spain or Peru, either in regard to the 
beauty of their structure or to the richness and good taste 
of their sacred vessels or ornaments of every kind. ' ' x Even 
today, when most of them are little more than masses of 
ruins, they excite the wonder of every beholder and attest 
the ability of their Guarani builders as artisans and 
artists. 

In every reduction there were two schools. In one the 
Indians were taught the elementary branches of knowl- 
edge, like reading, writing and arithmetic. In the other 

*" History of Paraguay," Vol. I, p. 265, London, 1769. 

395 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

they received lessons in dancing, singing and playing "upon 
all the instruments permitted to be nsed in divine service, 
which they do, like the birds, as it were by instinct." x The 
noted French traveler, Alcide d'Orbigny, tells us that when 
he visited the mission of Santa Ana, among the Chiquitos, 
he was astonished to find the Indians executing selections 
from Eossini and Weber. 2 He would have been more sur- 
prised could he have heard the well-trained Gruarani musi- 
cians on the occasion of some special function, whether 
secular or religious. 

Nor is this all. Equally remarkable was the fact that 
the Guaranis of the reductions made, themselves, most of 
the musical instruments which they handled so well. They 
were so skillful in the use of tools and so clever in imi- 
tating any handiwork placed before them that they were 
able to reproduce any instrument, from a harp to a pipe- 
organ, and make it as good as the European original. In 
all kinds of arts and crafts their power of imitation seemed 
to be almost as highly developed as that of the Chinese or 
Japanese. 

They specially excelled in copying manuscripts. Char- 
levoix tells us of a very large one in Madrid which came 
from their hands, "which would do honor to the best cop- 
iers of Madrid, both in point of beauty and exactness." 3 

Even more extraordinary was their expertness as print- 
ers. The Indians not only cast the type but also engraved 
the plates used in illustrating the books that were pub- 
lished in the reductions. This was more than two centuries 
ago, when the art of printing in the United States was 
still in its infancy. Most of the works issued from their 
remarkable press were catechisms and books of devotion, 
for the use of the Indians. But, in addition to these works, 

1 0^>. cit. Vol. I, p. 264. 

2 "Fragment d' un Voyage au Centre de l'Amerique Meridionale/ ' p. 65, 
Paris, 1845. 

s Ut sup., p. 262. 

396 



IN GUARANILAND 

the celebrated "Vocabulario de la lengua Guarani," of 
Padre Ruiz de Montoya, was likewise printed on this 
press, as was also the rare and highly prized ' ' Manuale ad 
Usum Patrum Societatis Jesu qui in Reductionibus Para- 
quariae Versantur." This contains prayers in both Latin 
and Guarani and is, probably, after Montoya 's "Vocabu- 
lario," the most important work which has ever issued 
from the press of the reductions. 

In their palmiest days, the Guarani reductions were 
thirty-two in number, with a population of nearly one 
hundred and fifty thousand. 1 In a few decades the rude 
children of the subtropical forests and plains had acquired 
a knowledge of all the arts of civilized life. They were 
self-supporting and gave promise of eventually becoming 
an important social and economic factor in the Spanish 
colonies. How different were they in this respect from 
the Indians of our own country, who have cost the gov- 
ernment so many hundreds of millions of dollars! They 
were contented and happy. The proof of this lies in the 
fact that there were never any uprisings against the 
missionaries and in the childlike docility with which 
they submitted to the guidance of their father-priests 
— so they called their spiritual and temporal guides — 
whom they always regarded as their truest friends 
and most powerful protectors. As there were only 
two or three priests in charge of each of the reductions, 
there was nothing to prevent the Indians at any time 
from rebelling against authority or massacring their rulers, 
had they been so disposed or had they not been thoroughly 
satisfied with their changed mode of life, which was so 
entirely different from that of their savage ancestors. 

But the Guaranis were not indifferent to the advan- 

1 Some authors estimate the number at one hundred and eighty thousand. 
Contrary to what is often asserted, only eight of these reductions were in the 
present republic of Paraguay. The others were in the state of Parana, Brazil, 
and in the Argentine provinces of Misiones, Corrientes and Entre Eios. 

397 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tages of civilization. Still less did they fail to recognize 
the blessings which their devoted and self-sacrificing spir- 
itual leaders had brought them. Contrasting their life 
in the reductions under the gentle, yet firm, government of 
the Jesuits with that which they had before led in the 
wilds of Brazil and Paraguay, where they were ever the 
prey of Mameluke slavers, or the victims of famine, in- 
duced by their own improvidence, they were grateful for 
the security afforded them by their protectors against 
the raids of their enemies and for the provision which 
was made for their material as well as their spiritual 
welfare. 

The Indians of the missions were, for the first time in 
their history, assured of the means of subsistence and 
that without severe toil on their part. "They now," as 
Dean Funes writes, "had a certainty that large families, 
far from being a burden to their parents, would be their 
consolation ; that orphanage would be without danger ; wid- 
owhood would be without abandonment ; sickness would be 
without disconsolateness and old age without bitterness." x 

l "Ensayo de la Historia Civil del Paraguay, Buenos Aires y Tucuman. " 
Tom. I, p. 296, Buenos Aires, 1910. 

The poet Southey fills out so beautifully the pic ^ere sketched by Dean 

Funes, that I must do myself the pleasure of repro.i 'icing two of the strophes 
from his touching "Tale of Paraguay," in which he sings: 
In history's mournful map, the eye 
On Paraguay, as on a sunny spot, '" '<' " 

May rest complacent: to humanity, 
There, and there only, hath a peaceful lot 
Been granted, by Ambition troubled not, 
By Avarice undebased, exempt from care, 
By perilous passions undisturbed. And what 
If Glory never rested her standard there, 
Nor with her clarion blast awoke the slumbering air. 

Content and cheerful Piety were found 
Within those humble walls. From youth to age 
The simple dwellers paced their even round 
Of duty, not desiring to engage 
Upon the world's contentious stage, 

398 



IN GUARANILAND 

That the reductions had their limitations and imperfec- 
tions no one can deny. This was inevitable in a vast or- 
ganization composed almost exclusively of people just 
rescued from savagery. But, even during their short ex- 
istence, the Indians of the reductions had gone far beyond 
the boasted civilization of the Incas. As tillers of the 
soil, as shepherds and herdsmen, as artisans and artists, 
they far surpassed the Children of the Sun, while in in- 
tellectual attainments and in moral excellence they were 
as far above the Incas as Christian enlightenment is above 
the darkness of ignorance and barbarism. One is, there- 
fore, surprised to find men who laud the government of 
the Incas to the skies, and, at the same time, condemn 
the system of the reductions because, forsooth, it was not 
suitable for our so-called "civilized" life of today. "That 
it was not only suitable," writes Cunninghame Graham, 
certainly a competent witness, "but perhaps the best that, 
under the circumstances, could have been devised for In- 
dian tribes two hundred years ago, and then but just 
emerged from semi-nomadism, is, I think, clear when one 
remembers in whp ; a state of misery and despair the 
Indians of the ,4 mdmiendas and the mitas passed their 
lives." "" Tl ' E;ly 

Not only was the reduction system the most suitable for 
the Indians, but it was also the only one adopted in what 
was once the vast province of Paraguay which permitted 
an increase of the native population. When we recall the 
manner in which the Indians were exterminated elsewhere, 
especially in our own country, it must be admitted that 
this one fact speaks volumes in favor of the system which 
has been so adversely criticised by people who have been 
unable to appreciate its merits, or unwilling to recognize 

Whose ways they wisely had been trained to dread: 

Their inoffensive lives in pupillage 

Perpetually, but peacefully, they led, 

From all temptation saved, and sure of daily bread. 

— Canto IV, strs. 5 and 6. 

399 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the wonderful results which were achieved through its 
operation. 

The Guarani reductions exhibited many of the best 
features of Christian socialism. Like the faithful of apos- 
tolic times, the Indians of the missions ' ' had but one heart 
and one soul; neither did anyone say that aught of the 
things which he possessed was his own; but all things were 
common unto them." 1 In the heart of the wilderness, far 
from the ambitions and jealousies and turmoils of the rest 
of the world, these unspoiled children of nature were able 
to realize, in a striking manner, some of the sublime ideas 
of Plato and Sir Thomas More, and to enjoy in blessed 
tranquillity many of the serene delights of an earthly 
paradise. 

But these were 

' ' Joys too exquisite to last. ' ' 

The archenemy of mankind has ever been inimical to 
human felicity, and, as in the Eden of old, so in the Eden 
on the Parana was it true that 

' ' Serpents lie, where flowers grow. ' ' 

While the Indians were enjoying to the full their idyllic life 
— half Arcadian, half monastic — amid their orange groves 
and palm-studded fields, singing and dancing when the day's 
task was done, word was brought them that their father- 
priests, their loved spiritual fathers for five generations, 

1 The Acts of the Apostles, 4, 32. 

The eminent Italian historian, Lodovieo Muratori, in writing of the re- 
markable conversion of the Guaranis, who, "from wild beasts of the forest, 
were transformed into lambs of the sheepfold of Christ," declares "Questi 
lupi, questi orsi ora sono mansueti agnelli, innocenti columbe; e tale e nella 
maggior parte d'essi la compostezza, tale l'amore fraterno, cotanta 1 'illibatezza 
de'costumi, e la divozione, que sembrano un ritratto della primitiva Chiesa." 
' ' II Cristianesimo Felice nelle Missioni dei Padri della Compagnia di Gesu nel 
Paraguai, " p. 56, Venice, 1743. 

400 



IN GUARANILAND 

were to be taken from them, and that they were to be like 
sheep, a prey to the ravenous wolves which surrounded 
them and which had long, unknown to them, been seeking 
their destruction. 

This is not the place to tell of the causes which led 
to the expulsion of the Jesuits from the scene of their 
fruitful labors in behalf of humanity. The story of the 
abrupt termination of their noble work among the 
Guaranis, of their cruel separation, without a moment's 
warning, from their spiritual children to whose welfare 
they had generously devoted their lives ; of the agony and 
despair of the Indians on finding themselves suddenly de- 
prived of the counsel and support of those to whom they 
and their forefathers were indebted for the sweetest joys 
they had ever known, has often been told by both friend 
and foe. Suffice it to say of this nefarious, tragic and sui- 
cidal act of despotism what Southey, certainly an unpreju- 
diced witness, asserted of the ruthless spoliation of the 
Indians in the seven reductions eastward of the Uruguay, 
that it was an iniquity executed "in obedience to one of 
the most tyrannical commands that were ever issued in 
the recklessness of unfeeling power." 1 

After the expulsion of the Jesuits, the reductions un- 
derwent rapid disorganization. During the ensuing con- 
fusion and anarchy the missions were deserted by the In- 
dians, who gradually returned to their native forests or 
fell beneath the baneful blight of unprincipled whites. In 
less than a generation the once happy land of the Guarani 
reductions was, as had been happily expressed by the grace- 
ful writer, E. B. Cunninghame Graham, but little more 
than ' ' a vanished Arcadia. ' ' 2 

It was our original intention to visit the sites of the 

^'History of Brazil," Vol. Ill, p. 449, London, 1819. 

2 For a sympathetic account of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay the reader 
will find Mr. Graham's "A Vanished Arcadia," New York, 1901, well worth 
a perusal. 

401 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

principal missions both in Argentina and Paraguay. But 
I, for one, am not sorry that we, almost at the last hour, 
made a change in this part of our itinerary. It is neither 
cheering nor stimulating to contemplate the melancholy 
wreck of a paradise or to survey the graves of the buried 
hopes and aspirations of an unfortunate people. I was, 
therefore, satisfied with mere glimpses of what still re- 
main of the once happy towns and villages of the erst- 
while happy and prosperous reductions. This was my 
feeling as I passed through Aposteles, which is now the 
center of a flourishing Polish colony, but which was two 
centuries ago, as the liana-covered ruins of its once im- 
posing church still eloquently declare, the cherished home 
of God-loving Guaranis. I preferred to feast my eyes on 
that which has not been mutilated by the tooth of time nor 
by the ruthless hand of man — that exuberant Nature which 
still retains all the ravishing beauty of the days of yore. 
In lieu of crumbling temples and abandoned cemeteries — 
the once " sacred gardens of the dead" — I found more 
pleasure in gazing on the tree-clad hills and the flower- 
carpeted plains, over which the Indians, preceded by a 
crucifix and accompanied by their pastors, were wont, in 
long white-robed processions, to wend their way to peace- 
ful labor to the sound of joyous anthems or elevating 
prayer. It was more grateful to observe the clumps of 
stately palms which once shielded the laborer from the 
noonday sun, or the broad rivers, those majestic caminos 
andantes — flowing roads — along which well-manned canoes 
used to glide from one mission to another, or the wild 
orange groves, where a venerable Indian may still be 
found at eventide reverently murmuring the Angelus, as 
did his forefathers in happier days. But now not vesper 
hymns of contented natives enliven the scene ; only the 
harsh notes of the parrot and macaw hovering above the 
nearby date-palms — stately, though mute, souvenirs of the 
golden age of the Guarani missions. 

402 



iHl 




Ruins of Churches of the Reductions of Paraguay. 



IN GUARANILAND 

But it was the Parana, where we crossed it between 
Posadas and Encamacion, which gave me the most unal- 
loyed pleasure. It evoked in a special manner many cher- 
ished memories of youthful days. For my first recollec- 
tions of the reductions are associated with the picture 
of an Indian standing on the bank of the Parana, near 
these parts, with a large fish in his hand. And this pic- 
ture has always been connected with an account of the 
missionaries sailing down the great river and chanting 
the sublime Te Deum which was reechoed by the neighbor- 
ing wooded heights. How I then longed to see that great 
river in which the Indian caught the big fish! How I 
wished that I might one day sail on the great waterway 
which bore on its bosom the chanting evangelists of the 
golden age of Guaraniland! 

That was more than fifty years ago, and, although I 
seemed then to be yearning for the impossible, I never 
ceased to hope that one day my longings might be realized. 
And when at length, after almost two lifetimes, I actually 
found myself crossing the Parana at the very place where, 
two centuries before, the solemn notes of the Te Deum had 
stirred the souls of the Indians to their depths, I could 
scarcely credit my senses. I seemed as if by enchantment 
to be transported back to my boyhood days and — must" 
I own it? — I actually looked about me for the Indian with 
the big fish and the boat bearing the black-robes as they 
intoned the noble hymn of thanksgiving which tradition 
has long ascribed to those two eminent fathers of the 
Church — Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine. 

However, my abstraction was but momentary. If 
some of the objects which had so captivated my youthful 
fancy were missing in the scene before me, I had, at least, 
the satisfaction of being at last in the heart of the famous 
mission country and of contemplating a river which had 
been a mute witness to some of the most thrilling achieve- 
ments recorded in the annals of the reductions. 

403 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Of these, to mention but one, was the marvelous hegira 
of twelve thousand Indians from their home on the Para- 
panema to a place near the spot on which I then stood. 
They were under the leadership of Padre Montoya, one 
of the most remarkable men of the time. He was eminent 
not only as a missionary, but also as a scholar; he was 
a born leader of men. His "Arte y Vocabulario, " his 
"Tesoro de la Lengua Gruarani" and his "Catecismo" are 
still recognized as the best authorities on the Guarani lan- 
guage, while his "Conquista Espiritual" gives us the clear- 
est insight into the character of the reductions in which he 
labored so long and so effectually. "I have lived," he tells 
us in the introductory chapter to his last-named work, ' ' all 
through the period of thirty years in Paraguay, as in the 
desert, searching for wild beasts — that is, for savage In- 
dians — crossing wild countries, traversing mountain chains, 
in order to find Indians and bring them into the true sheep- 
fold of Holy Church. With my companions, I have estab- 
lished thirteen reductions, or townships, in the wilds, and 
this I did with great anxiety, in hunger, nakedness, and 
in frequent peril of my life. And all these years which I 
passed far from my brother-Spaniards, have made me al- 
most a rustic and ignorant of the polished language of the 
Court. ' ' x He usually traveled afoot and often barefooted. 

1 The original words of the author ..are so touching and give so vivid a 
picture of the labors and sufferings of the missionaries in the reductions of 
Guaraniland that I take the liberty of quoting them in full. 

"He viuido todo el tiempo dicho en la Prouincia del Paraguay, y como 
en el desierto, en busca de fieras, de Indios barbaros, atrauesando campos, y 
trasegando montes en busca suya, para agregarlos al aprisco de la Iglesia 
santa, y al seruicio de su Magestad, de que con mis companeros hize treze 
reducciones, o poblaciones, con el afan, habre, desnudez, y peligros frecuStes 
de la vida, que la imaginacion no alcanga, en cuyo exercicio me parecia estar 
en el desierto : porque aunque aquellos Indios que vinian a su vsanQa antigua 
en sierras, campos, montes, y en pueblos que cada uno montaua cinco, e seis 
casas, reduzidos ya por nuestra industria a poblaciones grandes; y de rusticos 
bueltos ya en politicos Christianos, con la continua predicacion del Euangelio. 
Con todo esso el carecer tantoa anos del trato Espafiol, y su lenguage, obligado 
por fuerc.a a usar siempre del Indico, viene a formar un hombre casi rustico, 

404 



IN GUARANILAND 

For traveling equipment, he informs us, lie had only a 
hammock and a little mandioca meal. For eight years or 
more he never once tasted bread. 

Such was the Moses who was to lead his people from 
Guaira, where they were incessantly harassed by the 
Mamelukes, to a Canaan between the Uruguay and the 
lower Parana. The undertaking would have dismayed a 
less resolute heart than that of Montoya. But with twelve 
thousand neophytes, including men, women and children, 
he courageously set out on a journey of five hundred miles, 
on a perilous river and through a maze of tangled forest, 
through which the retreating host had to cut their way 
with machetes. To make matters worse, their supply of 
provisions was limited. They were without arms and 
game was scarce. Many succumbed to hardship, hunger 
and disease. But, despite countless obstacles, which at 
times seemed insurmountable, Montoya never despaired of 
being able to conduct his people to a place of refuge, where 
they would be secure from the dreaded Mamelukes and 
where they could begin life anew in a land which they 
could call their own. After many moons had waxed and 
waned, success at last crowned his efforts and he finally 
saw his devoted people, whom he loved with an abiding 

y ageno del cortes lenguage, a que no poco ayudan los ordinarios manjares 
que los Indios comunmente usan, y de fuerea nosotros, que son raizes, cala- 
bacas, yeruas, habas, y otros deste genero, hasta que la inuasion hostil, quema 
de Iglesias, heridas que dieron a los Sacerdotes, malos tratamientos que les 
hizieron, sacrilegios que cometieron, presa que hizieron en ornamentos de Igle- 
sias, y alhajas pobres de los Eeligiosos que en onze poblaciones predicauan: 
y lo que mas es, auer desterrado de quatro Iglesias el santissimo, y venerabilis- 
simo Sacramento del Altar, los vezinos y moradores de las villas de san Pablo, 
Santos, san Vicente, y otras villas, que se han forjado de gente, cuyas acciones 
obligaron a huir de la luz de la justicia, me ha obligado a dexar aquel desierto, 
y soledad, y acudir a la Eeal Corte, y pies de su Magestad, caminando al pie 
de dos mil leguas, con el peligro, y riesgo de mar, rios, y enemigos que es 
notorio, a pedir instantemente el remedio de tantos males, que amenazan muy 
grandes estoruos de su Eeal seruicio, y dixera mejor, dafios, y peligros de 
perderse la mejor joya de su Corona Eeal." "Conquista Espfritual hecha por 
los religiosos de la Compafiia de Iesus, " p. 1-2. Madrid, 1639. 

405 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

love, securely established on the lower Parana, in the 
center of a fertile and healthful region which soon bore 
the soul-stirring name, Eeductions of Paraguay. 

Historians are wont to dilate on the retreat of the ten 
thousand Greeks, under Xenophon, as one of the most 
brilliant exploits in military annals. But this memorable 
march through a hostile country must yield the palm to 
Montoya's extraordinary achievement in safely conduct- 
ing a greater multitude — many of them weak and helpless 
women and children — through a pathless jungle and down 
the treacherous rapids of the impetuous Parana. Of those 
who have labored for the weal of their fellow men in the 
wilds of South America, few have a greater claim to the 
recognition and gratitude of humanity than Padre An- 
tonio Euiz de Montoya. But in a world like ours, which 
is so given to the apotheosis of mediocrity, his achieve- 
ments are almost forgotten, except by the few who still 
hold his memory in benediction and to whom the noble 
deeds of the great missionary are an inspiration and a 
clarion call to higher things. 1 

Between Encarnacion, on the southern border of Para- 
guay, and Asuncion there is little which is deserving of 
special notice, except the wonderfully fertile country. 
Most of that through which we passed is much like the 
northern and central parts of Uruguay. The undulating 
grazing lands, dotted with clumps of stately palm-trees 
and supplying rich pasturage to countless flocks and herds, 
constituted, as our train sped through them, magnificent 
panoramas which held our rapt attention for hours at a 
time. In the days of the reductions tens of thousands 

x Mr. Cunninghame Graham, in describing the wonderful feat of Montoya 
in guiding his people through the ill-boding wilderness, expresses himself in 
this characteristic fashion : ' ' Most commonly the world forgets or never knows 
its greatest men, while its lard-headed fools, who in their lives perhaps have 
been the toys of fortune, sleep in their honored graves, their memory living 
in the page of history preserved like grapes in aspic by writers suet-headed as 
themselves." Op. cit., p. 85. 

406 




Church at Canjo. Paraguay. 




Falls of Iguazu. 



IN GUARANILAND 

of sheep and hundreds of thousands of cattle roamed over 
these splendid grazing lands, 1 and made this part of Para- 
guay one of the most productive sections of the entire prov- 
ince of the Rio de la Plata. 

"What a marvelous region this would be today," ob- 
served one of my traveling companions, "had the reduc- 
tions been allowed to continue to the present day the noble 
work which was so tragically arrested a hundred and fifty 
years ago ! What an interesting Indian community we 
should now find here, if the Guaranis had been allowed 
to develop along the lines traced out for them by Montoya 
and his confreres in religion! What a glory for Para- 
guay — for the land of Isabella — for our race — if the In- 
dians of the missions had been permitted to increase and 
multiply and to attain that goal of social excellence to- 
wards which they were moving with such rapid strides ! 
What an object lesson in human evolution; of progress 
from savagery to civilization ! What a victory for science 
and culture; what glory for the cause of education and 
religion ! 

"It is not likely that there will ever again be offered 
another opportunity for a similar experiment in the so- 
cial evolution of a savage tribe. The experiment with 
the Guaranis, which promised so much, failed in exhibiting 
the anticipated results solely because of the fatuous pol- 
icy of those who should have been most interested in its 
success. When Charles III, in an evil hour, gave ear to 
the Machiavellian Pombal, and signed the decree for ex- 
pulsion of the Jesuits from his dominions, he sacrificed his 
Praetorian Guard and dealt a blow to Paraguay from which 
it has never recovered, and from which, humanly speak- 

*At the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits the number of cattle in the 
reductions was 719,761; oxen, 44,183; horses, 27,204; sheep, 13S,827. In the 
single estancia of Santa Tecla there were no fewer than fifty thousand head 
of these domestic animals. Vid. ' ' Inventarios de los Bienes Hallados a la 
Expulsion de los Jesuitos, Appendix, ' ' p. 669, by Francisco Javier Brabo, Mad- 
rid, 1872. 

407 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

ing, it never can recover. It was a blow to the economic 
and industrial growth of the country, as well as to its social 
and intellectual advancement. Paraguay occupies a promi- 
nent page in history, but it is the only one of the South 
American republics which has so far failed to contribute 
something of enduring value to literature." 1 
The Ave bell, 

"That seemed to mourn for the expiring day," 

softly sounded from convent towers as our train slowly 
rolled into the imposing station of the Paraguayan capital, 
where a vast, acclaiming multitude had gathered to bid 
us welcome to Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion. 2 I cannot 
speak for my companions, but I can say that I personally 
was more eager to see this old, historic metropolis than 
any other city I had ever visited in the southern continent, 
with the exception of Lima, and possibly Cuzco and Bogota. 
This was not because of its size, or wealth, or beauty, for 
in the last two respects, if not in all three, it is far be- 
hind the other capitals of South America. It was because 
of the important role it had so long played in the history 
of the New World and because of the atmosphere of ro- 
mance which has enveloped it since the days when the 
Conquistadores made it a place of refuge on their way to 
golden Peru, and the center of gravity of the southern part 
of the continent. 

1 The truth of this assertion is evidenced by the fact that in the elaborate 
four-volume ' ' Antologia de Poetas Hispano-Americanas, ' ' of Menendez y Pe- 
layo, of the Koyal Spanish Academy, we find selections from the poets of 
all the South American republics, except Paraguay. 

2 Asuncion was founded in 1537 on the site of a fort which had been con- 
structed by Gonsalvo Mendoza and near the spot where Juan de Ayolas had 
gained a signal victory over the Indians on the fifteenth of August — the feast 
of our Lady 's Assumption — of the preceding year. ' ' Gonsalvus Mendoza 
arcem Virgini in caelum Assumptae consecratam ibi construxit, ubi nunc eadem 
nominis Assumptionis urbs Paraguariae caput visitur. " "Historia Provincial 
Societatis Jesu, " Lib. I, Cap. 9 by Padre N. del Techo, Leodii, 1673. 

408 



IN GUARANILAND 

Like Quito and Bogota, Asuncion retains the charm and 
flavor of antiquity. In many respects, the manners and 
customs of its inhabitants are the same as they were under 
Hernandarias, its first Creole governor. The women still 
wear the mantilla and the rebozo, as in colonial times, and 
still carry water-jugs on their heads as did the maidens of 
Andalusia in the days of the Moors. On festal occasions 
la gente calzada — the upper class — have their gowns decked 
with the exquisite lace, which, on account of its extreme 
delicacy and tenuousness, is aptly named nanduti in Guar- 
ani — tela de arana in Spanish — which signifies spider's 
web. It is made by the deft hands of clever Paraguayan 
women, who exhibit in their work all the skill and artistic 
sense of the most famous lace-makers of Brussels and 
Venice. 

As in La Paz and Cuzco the people of pure European 
stock constitute a small minority, so also among the eighty- 
odd thousand inhabitants of Asuncion the great number 
are mestizos of Spanish and Indian strain. In spite of 
the tremendous loss the Guaranis have sustained since the 
collapse of the reductions, there are still in Paraguay many 
of these interesting people of unmixed blood, and many, 
too, who speak no language but Guarani. Indeed, there 
are several newspapers in Asuncion which are printed in 
both Spanish and Guarani, and it is necessary for the 
priests, in most of the missions, to have a knowledge of 
both languages. The scholarly and zealous Bishop of 
Asuncion, Monsignor Bogarin, had just completed a 
visitation of his vast diocese when I met him, and had 
many interesting stories to relate regarding his experi- 
ences among the various Indian tribes under his jurisdic- 
tion. 

So intense was the heat the first day of our arrival that 
it seemed we were in Muspellsheim. But a heavy rainstorm 
soon moderated the temperature, and then a delicate 
drowsy languor pervaded the atmosphere and predisposed 

409 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

one to immobility and reverie. We were no longer in 
Muspellsheim, but in the land of the Lotus Eaters, 

"A land where all things always seem the same." 

The climate of Asuncion is, indeed, remarkably equable, 
and sudden variations in temperature are exceptional. 
During nine months of the year the city rejoices in all 
the delights and beauties of spring. For this reason there 
are few cities in South America which appeal more strongly 
to the lover of the romantic past and in which one is more 
inclined to spend a few months of dreamy existence. 

But it is only of the charms of Asuncion's perpetual 
spring that one can say ' ' all things always seem the same. ' ' 
For no city in South America has experienced more or 
greater vicissitudes than the queen metropolis of the 
Paraguay. From the day when the adelantado, Alvar 
Nunez, one of the noblest of the Conquistadores, was sent 
back in chains from Asuncion to Spain, Paraguay has been 
devastated and desolated by rebellions and wars without 
number. This was particularly true during the greater 
part of the nineteenth century when she fell into the hands 
of three tyrants, who, for more than fifty years, ruled 
the country with an iron hand. 

The first of these was Jose Gaspar Bodriguez, better 
known as Dr. Francia. For nearly thirty years the history 
of Paraguay was little more than the narrative of the 
cruel deeds of this heartless despot. His was a regime 
of terror such as few countries have ever known. His gov- 
ernment was characterized by all the iniquities of the worst 
of the Visconti and all the ruthlessness of Ivan the Ter- 
rible. As El Supremo Perpetuo he was the arbiter of life 
and death. He tortured and put to death without trial all 
who incurred his displeasure or excited his suspicion. He 
forbade communication with the rest of the world, and, 
towards the end of his long life, he had Paraguay as com- 

410 




Paraguayan Lace-Maker. 




Country Home in Paraguay, 



IN GUARANILAND 

pletely isolated from the outer world as the hermit king- 
dom of Thibet. The dread which the Supremo inspired 
during life continued even after his demise. For a long 
time no one dared to speak freely of El Muerto or El 
Difunto, the deceased par excellence, and, if any reference 
was made to him, the timid natives would instinctively 
glance about them, to assure themselves that they were not 
being observed by some secret agent who might be seeking 
to compass their destruction. 

The second dictator was Carlos Antonio Lopez. Dur- 
ing twenty-one years he, like his predecessor, was the state. 
On account of his arbitrary acts the United States was 
compelled, in 1853, to order Lieutenant Page, U.S.N., in 
command of the Water Witch, to enforce demands against 
him, but the wily autocrat succeeded in evading them. 

Shortly before his death, the dictator — contrary to all 
law — designated his son, Francisco Solano Lopez, as his 
successor. If the father had chastised the Paraguayans 
with whips, his son chastised them with scorpions. For 
seven years he ground his people under his heel. Dur- 
ing this period thousands of innocent people were impris- 
oned, tortured and put to death by the tyrant's orders. 
Neither age nor sex was spared. Even the ties of kin- 
ship failed to stay the monster's murderous hands. Every 
family of note in the country supplied victims to the ogre 
whose atrocities made his name a byword among all the 
nations of the world and a hissing on the lips of Time. 

He aspired to be a second Napoleon and sought to se- 
cure supremacy in South America. To gratify his ambi- 
tion and to realize his dreams of empire, he provoked the 
War of the Triple Alliance, in which the army of Para- 
guay was pitted against the combined forces of Brazil, 
Uruguay and Argentina. The struggle was long and of 
unparalleled ferocity. The loss of life on both sides was 
frightful. Old men and boys of ten years of age were 
forced to take up arms. But victory, as was foreseen by 

411 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

all except the ghoulish instigator of the conflict, was in 
favor of the Alliance. 

During this unequal struggle, in which the Guaranis 
fought with more than Spartan bravery, nearly the entire 
male population of Paraguay was sacrificed. Scarcely one 
per cent of those who were forced into the war by a ruth- 
less despot returned to their homes alive. When Lopez 
finally met his tragic death on the banks of the Aquidaban, 
the desolation of the country which he had plunged into 
such misery was indescribable. The proportion of men 
to women was but one to seven. Of women and children, 
more than a hundred thousand had died from famine and 
exposure. At the end of the seven years of his tyrannical 
rule but one-fifth of the population was left, and Para- 
guay was little more than a geographical expression. To 
show their execration of the atrocities of this inhuman 
monster, the government, even after his death, enacted 
a special decree of expatriation in which the deceased 
tyrant was denounced as an outlaw and an enemy of his 
country. N 

All of the South American republics have, at one time 
or another, been cursed by the atrocities of ambitious and 
ruthless caudillos and despots. Argentina, to mention one 
of them, has had her Rosas 1 and Quiroga. But neither 
of these, cruel and murderous as they were in dealing 
with their fellow-men, exhibited such an utterly callous na- 
ture or was responsible for such a wanton waste of human 
life* as was the demon Lopez. 

Nearly half a century has elapsed since Paraguay was 
liberated from the terrorism of Lopez, but the paralyzing 
effect of his fiendish abuse of power is still everywhere 
apparent. The nation is still staggering under a debt 

1 Eosas, in the words of the eloquent Chilean writer, B. Vicuna Mackenna, 
turned the whole Argentine Eepublic into a huge slaughter-house — "Bajo Kosas 
y sus capataees la Eepublica Argentina fue toda entera una ramada de ma- 
tanza. ' ' 

412 



IN GUARANILAND 

whose interest it lias been able to pay only by disposing 
of its choicest lands at a nominal price. Many of the 
streets of Asuncion are covered with grass and scrub, 
and the houses, in certain quarters, are neglected and fall- 
ing into ruins. The people seem to be still stunned by 
the terrible events of fifty years ago. But their courage and 
powers of endurance prevent them from yielding to de- 
spair. In the darkness and the sadness of their lives they 
descry in the distant future better and brighter days. 
This heartens them to make a supreme effort to regain 
what they lost by the insane policy of a single man. In- 
dustries are again being organized and commerce is be- 
ing stimulated in a manner to inspire hope that national 
prosperity will again return. Schools are being established 
in every part of the Republic, and the rising generation 
are slowly, but surely, preparing themselves to win back 
for their country the commanding position which she for- 
merly occupied and to which her extraordinary natural 
resources entitles her. It was my privilege to visit a 
number of the best-conducted schools of Asuncion, and in 
every one of them I was so impressed by the beaming in- 
telligence and the love of learning of the pupils, as well 
as by the zeal and competency of their teachers, that I 
could have no doubt about the cheering outlook for the 
Republic. The isolation of the country has hitherto been 
a great barrier to progress, but now that the railroad sup- 
plements the splendid steamers of the Mihanovitch and 
other enterprising lines, everything betokens a rapid de- 
velopment of pastoral and agricultural industries as well 
as a greatly expanded commerce. When the fatal revo- 
lutionary spirit, which still menaces the nation's peace 
and prosperity, will at last be laid low, then, of a truth, 
will the noble and deserving people of Guaraniland — so 
hospitable, so courageous and so patriotic? — be able to re- 
alize their age-long aspirations and work out what their 
friends have always regarded as their manifest destiny. 

413 



CHAPTER XVIII 
ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

The imposing spires and cupolas of Asuncion have dis- 
appeared in the distance. We are now on the Canoniere 
Riquelme — an armed cruiser of the Paraguayan navy, 
which also serves as a yacht for the President of the Re- 
public. Through the courtesy of His Excellency, Sehor 
Don Eduardo Schaerer — the son of a German-Swiss father 
and a Paraguayan mother — 1 this little cruiser is to take 
us to Corumba, nearly a week's steaming up the Paraguay. 
Besides the crew, and the members of our party, there 
are aboard three or four of our hosts from Asuncion who 
are to accompany us to Corumba. 

The comandante of the vessel is a most charming gen- 
tleman and well educated. During his early youth he spent 
many years in the ecclesiastical seminary of Asuncion, 
studying for the priesthood. But, finding that he had no 
vocation to the Church he decided to enter the service of 
his country, in the navy. Although still young, he occu- 
pies one of the highest and most responsible positions in 
the Paraguayan marine force. , No one among his asso- 
ciates enjoys more fully the confidence of his superiors or 
the esteem of his countrymen. He is thoroughly simpatico, 
and I am sure that the week which we spent with 
him aboard the Riquelme was one of unalloyed pleasure 

1 It is interesting to note in this connection, that Juan Martin Pueyrredon, 
the first president of Argentina, who so loyally supported General San Martin 
in his Chilean campaign, was the son of a Swiss merchant, although he him- 
self was born in Argentina, as President Schaerer was born in Paraguay. 

414 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

and profit. It is hard to realize that this quiet, low-voiced, 
unassuming, retiring man is a naval officer, and that he 
is one of the bravest and most efficient in a nation which 
is proverbial for the courage and fighting qualities of 
her sons. But having both Spanish and Guarani blood 
in his veins, he has all the impetuous dash and intrepidity 
of the typical Paraguayan soldier, whose motto is veneer 
6 morir — conquer or die. 

For weeks most of us had been looking forward with 
pleasant anticipation to our voyage up the Paraguay as 
an opportunity for a much desired rest. For, while our 
journey hitherto through South America's Southland had 
been supremely interesting, and the hospitality and kind- 
ness of the people had everywhere been beyond praise, 
the life we had led with all its bustle and changes and 
functions innumerable had been rather strenuous. "We 
therefore gladly welcomed a week of genuine relaxation. 
We never anticipated, however, the good fortune which 
awaited us of having all to ourselves a well-equipped 
cruiser in which to enjoy our dolce far niente free from 
all the exactions of dress parade and the daily entertain- 
ments extending beyond the midnight hour. And yet, 
after the princely manner in which we had been treated 
in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, we might have 
known that Paraguay would not have been less consid- 
erate of our welfare while we were within her borders. 

That we were to have a week's rest on a vessel on 
which we had all the comforts and conveniences of a pri- 
vate yacht — with the best of captains and a crew whose 
only thought was our comfort and pleasure — was some- 
thing for which we had every reason to be grateful. But 
that we were to enjoy all these advantages on the storied 
Paraguay — a river which witnessed some of the most bril- 
liant and most romantic achievements of the Conquista- 
dores — was far more than we ever looked forward to, 
even in our fondest dreams. 

415 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

From my boyhood, rivers and woodlands have always 
possessed a peculiar fascination for me. As a youth, my 
ideal of happiness was to live in a boat moving up and 
down a forest-fringed river in the tropics. My dreams 
were now at last to be realized, and on the most romantic 
of South America's great rivers. The Orinoco and the 
Magdalena and the Amazon, it is true, had always strongly 
appealed to me, but not quite in the same way as the Para- 
guay. This was, probably, because I had read of the mar- 
vels of the last-named river before I had learned of the 
many interesting features of the other three. 

The Paraguay does not, indeed, possess the countless 
attractions of the Rhine, with its vineyard- and castle- 
crowned banks — so rich in legend, so great in history — 
which so entranced Victor Hugo; nor the glories of the 
Loire which, according to Honore de Balzac, flows through 
land "perfumed like Italy and flowered like the banks of 
the Guadalquivir," and bears on its banks, in the sumptu- 
ous palaces and castles of Chambord, Blois, Amboise, 
Chenonceaux, Chaumont, Plessis-les-Tours, so many and 
so splendid marks of royal affection ; nor the reputed sanc- 
tity of Mother Ganges, as she is lovingly named by devout 
Hindus; nor the air of mystery that hangs over Father 
Nile, both of which rivers so bound Pierre Loti by their 
spell. But, notwithstanding the absence in the Paraguay 
of the countless attractions — historic, legendary, religious 
■ — of the Ehine and the Loire, the Ganges and the Nile, 
South America's majestic river does, nevertheless, pos- 
sess many and varied charms which make a special ap- 
peal not only to the student of history and legend, but 
also, and particularly, to the lover of wild nature in her 
rarest and most bizarre manifestations. 

Most of our time during the day was spent on the 
deck, under a broad awning which shielded us from the 
tropical sun, and where we were usually favored with a 
delightful breeze, especially in the morning and evening. 

416 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

The nights were particularly pleasant and refreshing. 
The balmy air and the softly-gliding motion of our cruiser 
through the tranquil river which was bordered on both 
sides by picturesque palmares — groups of palm trees — 
wooed to rest and reverie. 

While not occupied in contemplating the ever-changing 
landscape, we usually spent our time in reading or writ- 
ing, or in discussing the floral and faunal exhibitions which 
so frequently arrested our attention. 

During our first day on the river two of our party 
spent considerable time in fishing. Our junior member, 
Harper, had heard much about the ferocious piranha, or 
Carib fish, and he was determined to catch one. But, al- 
though the river was full of the finny tribe, he was unable 
to catch the much-coveted Carib. His bait disappeared 
almost as soon as it reached the water and, time after 
time, his hook was snapped off the wire to which it was 
attached. One morning, while he and a companion were 
fishing together, the four-ply brass wire which held the 
hook was cut, as if by a pair of steel pliers, no less than 
ten times in the space of three hours. He was sorely 
puzzled and inquired of one of the Paraguayans aboard 
what was the cause of this. His amazement was great 
when he was told that it was due to the hard, razor-sharp 
teeth of the piranha. 1 But the information made a mate- 
rial change in at least one of his plans. Being an English- 
man, he was fond of his tub, and, not content with the 
shower bath on board, he had resolved to take an occa- 
sional plunge in the river when the steamer stopped for 
wood or provisions. We tried to dissuade him from this 
by telling him of the danger to be apprehended from alli- 
gators and, above all, from the ubiquitous Carib which 

1 Padre Guevara, in his "Historia del Paraguay," tells us that the Guay- 
curu Indians use the jawbone of the piranha — which he calls the palometa — as 
a saw. He also declares that it is capable of severing a fishhook no less than 
twenty times in the space of an hour. 

417 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

lias been known to make short shrift of both animals and 
men when fonnd in the water. These voracious fish 
are, in fact, more feared by the riparian inhabitants of 
the tropics than the ray or the alligator. An animal with 
a bleeding wound entering the water is immediately at- 
tacked by a whole shoal of piranhas and in a very short 
time the flesh is stripped to the bone. Many tragic deaths 
are recorded of men who rashly ventured into waters in- 
fested by these ferocious and bloodthirsty creatures. 

After Harper had listened with undisguised interest 
to the stories about these aquatic cannibals, he spoke no 
more about bathing in the Paraguay. But his curiosity 
was greatly excited by what he had heard, and, as he 
had never seen a piranha, he determined to continue his 
piscatory efforts until he should succeed in securing one 
for examination. One morning while Colonel Eoosevelt 
and I were occupied in reading we heard an unearthly yell 
and, looking in the direction of the agonizing sound, we 
saw Harper, pale and terror-stricken, trying to escape the 
imagined attacks of a large, repulsive bullhead — with ex- 
tra long barbels — which he had just landed and which 
was floundering upon the deck in a most desperate manner. 

Harper thought he had at last caught the longed-for 
man-eater, and, when he saw the horrid-looking thing help- 
lessly flopping about him, he shouted excitedly and strove 
at once to escape from the fancied attack of the monster. 
He admitted afterwards that the harmless fish seemed 
as big as a full-grown shark and that the instinct of self- 
preservation was, for a few moments, quite preternatural. 
I regret that I cannot here reproduce the spirited sketch 
of this little episode which was made by our staff artist, 
as it would be far more vivid than any verbal account of 
the incident. 

About midnight of the day after leaving Asuncion we 
arrived at the historic old city of Concepcion. We did 
not, however, go ashore until the following morning, when 

418 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

at an early hour Colonel Eoosevelt and I started out for 
a quiet stroll through the town. We had not gone more 
than a few blocks when we found ourselves in the hands 
of the civil and military authorities, who extended to us 
every courtesy until the time of our departure some hours 
afterwards. Many of them accompanied us several miles 
up the river, when, after a kindly Adios! and a cordial 
Dios guarde a listed to each of our party, they returned 
home in a steamer which was waiting for them. 

Three days after leaving Asuncion, we were joined at 
the mouth of the Eio Apa — the river which constitutes 
the northern boundary between Paraguay and Brazil — 
by a part of the Brazilian contingent of our expedition, 
under the leadership of Colonel Rondon. The members 
of it had come overland from Rio de Janeiro and were 
awaiting us on the Nyoac, a steamer of the Lloyd Brasilero 
Line. Among them were several naturalists and explor- 
ers, some of whom were already familiar with the part of 
the Brazilian wilderness towards which we were headed. 

Some time before leaving New York, Colonel Roosevelt 
and I thought it would be desirable to secure, if possible, 
the cooperation of Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Ron- 
don, who had spent many years in the part of Brazil which 
we purposed traversing. Through the kindly interest of 
the Brazilian Ambassador in Washington, and of Dr. Lauro 
Muller, Brazil's eminent Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 
matter was quickly arranged, and when we reached Rio 
de Janeiro we were gratified to learn that Colonel Rondon 
had been detailed to accompany our expedition. 

Our original plan was to go from the headwaters of 
the Paraguay to the Amazon by way of the Arinos and 
the Tapajos. But our program was changed on our ar- 
rival in Brazil. Then it was that Dr. Muller, who from 
the first had displayed the liveliest interest in our journey 
through the interior of his country, suggested that it might 
be more interesting to try to reach the Amazon by an 

419 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

unexplored river, then known as Eio da Duvida — the 
river of doubt. It was so called because its course was 
unknown and geographers were in doubt as to whether it 
was a tributary of the Amazon, the Madeira, the Tapajos, 
or some other river, or whether it might not, perhaps, ter- 
minate in some vast swamp or interior lake. 

The project appealed to all of us and it was immedi- 
ately decided that the expedition should attempt the ex- 
ploration of the Duvida in place of descending the Tapajos. 
As soon as our purpose became known, a number of nat- 
uralists, Brazilians and others, expressed a desire to ac- 
company us. But it was not until we arrived at the mouth 
of the Apa that we knew who our associates were to be. 
We were delighted to find that they were a thoroughly 
equipped and enthusiastic body of young men, w T hose in- 
terest in science and exploration was as keen as that of 
our own men. 

After an exchange of visits between the Brazilian and 
American contingents of our expedition, the Nyoac and the 
cruiser Riquelme continued together their course up the river. 
Both of them made occasional stops for wood and provi- 
sions, or to afford us an opportunity of visiting such places 
of interest as Fort Olimpo, near the Bolivian boundary, 
and Fort Coimbra, whose capture by the Paraguayans, 
during the War of the Triple Alliance, gave them the key 
to Matto Grosso. 

The region drained by the Paraguay is for the most 
part a vast level plain, without the sign of a hill or a 
mountain as far as the eye can reach. In this respect, 
it is like the immense area which borders the mighty 
Amazon. The land adjoining the river is rarely more than 
a few yards above the water, even during the dry season. 
The consequence is that during the rainy season, which 
corresponds to our winter, a large part of the country is 
inundated. The backwaters which are thus produced form 
numerous bahias, or lagoons, which at times cover so much 

420 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

territory that they seem to be a restoration of the bound- 
less Pampean Sea which once covered a great part of this 
portion of the continent. 

During the dry season, large herds of cattle, some 
scraggy, others sleek and fat, may be seen grazing on the 
rich pasture lands to the very banks of the river. But 
when the rainy season sets in — usually in November — both 
herds and herdsmen are forced to retire to higher ground 
far from the invading flood. 

The pueblos along the river's banks are few in number 
and rarely count more than one or two hundred people. 
Most of their inhabitants are mestizos, but now and then 
one meets representatives of the various nations of Eu- 
rope. At one of the places where we stopped to take on 
wood there was a large saw-mill operated by a son of 
la belle France. Further up the river, at an estancia where 
we secured a supply of fresh beef, the manager, to judge 
by his rich brogue, seemed to be a new arrival from the 
Emerald Isle. But he was not. He was an Argentine, 
whose parents had emigrated from the County Meath. 
Near Concepcion there is an immense tract of country 
which belongs to the Farquhar syndicate, on which there 
were, at the time of our passage, nearly forty thousand 
cattle. The manager of this vast property was an Ameri- 
can, from Texas. 

At the new and flourishing town of Puerto Murtinho — 
a leading center of the mate industry — I met an interest- 
ing and intelligent gentleman from Barcelona, Spain. I 
had scarcely set foot on shore when he and his charming 
little ten-year-old daughter introduced themselves, and 
courteously invited me to their home. I have rarely met 
a brighter or a more beautiful child than this vivacious 
little daughter of Catalonia, She spoke Spanish and Por- 
tuguese as fluently as her native Catalan and took inno- 
cent pride in her linguistic accomplishments. Her mother 
gave me a most gracious welcome to her neat and cozy 

421 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

cottage. In a moment the little brothers and sisters of 
Carmencita — my youthful companion — were gathered 
about me. Like my little cicerone, they were all as beau- 
tiful as pictures, and might well have served as models 
for the cherubs of Murillo or the putti of Correggio. 

As the fond father contemplated his heart's darlings, 
he turned toward me, saying with a sigh: "Alas! Padre 
mio, we have neither church nor school here, and it is 
impossible, without them, for us to bring up our children 
as we would wish. We hope, however, to have both church 
and school before long." 

As we returned to the landing-place, Carmencita, ac- 
companied by her father, continued to prattle away — with 
a total absence of self -consciousness — as if she had known 
me all her life. And when the boat's whistle summoned 
all aboard and she, after her father, bade me adieu in the 
touching words of her motherland — Vaya Usted con Dios 
— the beautiful words of the Italian poet came to my lips : 

"0 gentilina, gentilina tutta! 
Garofanate son vostre parole." 1 

Wherever we stopped on our way up the river — and 
we stopped at many places — most of us went ashore. I 
always availed myself of these opportunities to visit the 
people in their homes. And no matter how poor they 
were, or how humble their rude abodes, they always gave 
me a kindly welcome and expressed pleasure that I had 
called to see them. Nothing more astonished me than the 
large families which I sometimes found. In one place a 
young mother of thirty-two years proudly showed me her 
family of twelve bright, healthy children, and seemed as 
devoted to each one of them as was the Koman matron, 
Cornelia, to her two noble sons. 

*() gentle maid, all gentle! 
Carnationed are thy words. 

422 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

Most of the houses along the Paraguay are made of 
wattle-and-daub, thatched with palm leaves. I was, how- 
ever, quite surprised at the number of buildings here 
which are composed entirely of corrugated iron. This ma- 
terial is frequently used for warehouses and pulperias, or 
country stores. Every home, outside of the pueblos, is 
surrounded by a plantation of maize and manioc, which, 
together with fruit and fish, supply the chief sustenance 
of the Indians and poorer mestizos. Good fish of several 
kinds abound in the Paraguay, and at almost any hour of 
the day an Indian, or a half-caste, may be seen in his nar- 
row dugout plying the spear or hook to secure a meal for 
himself and family. 

Like all the rivers of tropical South America, the Para- 
guay is remarkable for the number of alligators seen along 
its banks. They are locally called caymans or jacares, but 
are classed by zoologists among the Alii gat or idee. As seen 
at a distance, basking in the sun on a mud bank, they 
have the appearance of small logs or bulky pieces of drift- 
wood. 

There is little, one would think, in these repulsive 
saurians to stir the lyric muse. Yet the Argentine poet, 
D. Manuel Jose de Labarden, does not hesitate to intro- 
duce them in his ode "Al Parana." He pictures the god 
of the great river, crowned with twisted bulrushes and 
wild camalotes, 

En el carro de nacar refulgente, 
Tirado de caimanes recarnados 
De verde y oro. 1 

Most of the members of our party could see nothing in 
the jacare, except an attractive target for their rifles. 
Fortunately, however, for the poor alligators most of 

'In a ear of shining mother-of-pearl, drawn by fretted caymans of green 
and gold. 

423 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the shots went very wide of the mark and but few of them 
were killed. 

Nobody seemed to object to the shooting of jacares, but 
when some of those on the cruiser began to try their 
marksmanship on inoffensive birds there was, at once, 
a vigorous and effectual protest, as the following inci- 
dent will show. 

Colonel Roosevelt and I were one day reading on the 
quarterdeck when, presently, we heard repeated shots to- 
wards the bow. On inquiry we discovered that the mem- 
bers of the crew, in order to while away the time, were 
firing at the birds which, in large numbers, were perched 
on the trees on both sides of the river. As soon as he 
saw what was going on, my companion became visibly agi- 
tated. The idea of killing and mutilating innocent birds 
as a mere pastime was too much for him. Rising hastily 
to his feet, he exclaimed with characteristic emphasis : l i By 
George, this thing must stop." And stop it did, in short 
order. And, thenceforward, there was no more wanton 
slaughter of birds, or other innocuous animals of any 
kind whatever. 

On the right bank of the Paraguay there is a vast 
region known as the El Gran Chaco. 1 It extends from the 
marshes of Santiago del Estero, in Argentina, to the 
Llanos of the Chiquitos in Bolivia, and from the Paraguay 
to the mountain ranges of Tucuman and Santa Cruz de la 
Sierra. As it has always been regarded as a land of mys- 
tery, my first view of it excited deep emotion. It is said 
to have been, at the time of the conquest, the refuge of 
certain Indian tribes who, before the arrival of the Span- 
iards, had lived under the rule of the Incas. "Whether this 
is true or not, some of the many tribes inhabiting this ex- 

1 Philologists are not at one as to the meaning of the word ' ' Chaco. ' ' 
Some say it signifies ' ' a hunting ground, ' ' on account of the large number 
of wild animals within its borders, while others contend that it means "a 
swamp," because of the large l>anados — marshes — which constitute so large 
a part of its area. 

424 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

tensive territory have, for centuries, been almost as war- 
like as the Araucanians and have ever been distinguished 
for their extreme hostility towards Europeans. Among 
the most noted of these tribes are the Tobas, whose name 
has long been a synonym for cruelty and bloodshed. 

But, although the veil of mystery still hangs over much 
of the Great Chaco, it is not true to say, as is sometimes 
asserted by modern travelers, that its inhabitants are "an 
unknown people of an unknown land." It would be truer 
to declare that they are a forgotten people of a forgotten 
land. For, as far back as the time of the Conquistadores, 
San Francisco Solano, in the words of Charlevoix, "pub- 
lished the Gospel in every part of this country." 1 The 
Jesuits, too, extended their missionary activities to the 
Chaco at an early date, while the most complete descrip- 
tion of the country and its inhabitants ever written is the 
great work of Padre Lozano which was published nearly 
two centuries ago. 2 

The Franciscans still have numerous missions in the 
Chaco and are ably continuing the work which was so 
auspiciously begun by their sainted confrere, San Fran- 
cisco Solano, nearly three and a half centuries ago. And 
some of their most devoted neophytes are among those 
terrible Tobas who have so long been anathema in cer- 
tain parts of Bolivia and Argentina. If, however, one 

1 Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 183. 

8 The title of this valuable and comprehensive work is : " Descripcion 
Chorografica del Terreno, Eios, Arboles, y Animates de las dilatadisimas Pro- 
vincias del Gran Chaco, Gualamba: y de los Eitos, y Costumbres de los inu- 
merables Naciones barbaras, e infieles que le habitan: Con Una Cabal Kelacion 
Historica de lo que en ellos han obrado para conquistarlas algunos Goberna- 
dores, y Ministros Eeales: y los Missioneros Jesuitas para reducirlos a la Fe 
del verdadero Dios. ' ' Cordoba, 1733. 

An equally valuable work on the early missions in the northern part of 
the Chaco and the adjoining territory is the "Eelacion Historical de los Indios 
Chiquitos," by Padre J. P. Fernandez, Tom. XIII in the "Coleccion de Li- 
bros Earos y Curiosos que Tratan de America," Madrid, 1895. The first edi- 
tion of this work was published in Madrid in 1726. 

425 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

may credit the Franciscans, who know them best, and 
rely on the statements of certain Americans who have 
spent several years among them, the Tobas, when treated 
like human beings, are far from being the fiendish savages 
that report makes them. "If the whites wonld only deal 
honestly with the Tobas and keep away from their women, 
there wonld be no trouble." This was a statement made 
to me by an American, who has long had dealings with 
the Tobas, when I questioned him about certain atrocities, 
during recent years, of which these Indians have been 
accused. 

The languages spoken by the various tribes of the 
Chaco are as difficult as they are numerous. Father 
DobrizhorTer, who spent eighteen years among the Para- 
guayan Indians, in referring to the difficulty which Euro- 
peans have in becoming accustomed to their tongues, and 
to the strange and distorted words which the Indians pro- 
nounce so fast and indistinctly, declares that they hiss 
with their tongues, snore with their nostrils, grind with 
their teeth, and gurgle with their throats, "so that you 
seem to hear the sound of ducks quacking in a pond rather 
than the voices of men talking. ' ' 1 

It was among these Indians that the good father re- 
ceived one of the greatest shocks of his missionary career. 
With Cicero and Tertullian, he had always believed that 
there was no nation, or tribe, however savage, that was 
ignorant of the existence of God. 2 "Theologians," writes 
Dobrizhoffer, "agree in denying that any man in the pos- 
session of his reason can, without crime, remain ignorant 

^'History of the Abipones," Vol. II, p. 159, London, 1822. 

2 Cicero 's words on this subject, which have so impressed philosophers and 
theologians for more than two thousand years are: "Ipsisque in hominibus 
nulla gens est, neque tam immansueta neque tarn fera, quae non, etiamsi ig- 
noret, qualem habere Deum deceat, tamen habendum sciat. " "De Legibus, " 
Lib. I, Cap. VIII, 25. 

Tertullian 's view, as given in his ' ' Apologeticus, ' ' is in fewer words : viz., 
"Haec est summa delicti nolle recognoscere quern ignorare non possit. " 

426 





Our Cruiser Riquilme on the Way to Corumba. 




Toba Family and Ranciio. 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

of God for any length of time. This opinion I warmly de- 
fended in the University of Cordoba, where I finished the 
four years' course of theology begun at Gratz, in Styria. 
But what was my astonishment when, on removing thence 
to a colony of Abipones, I found that the whole language 
of these savages does not contain a single word which ex- 
presses God or a divinity. To instruct them in religion 
it was necessary to borrow the Spanish word for God, and 
insert in the catechism Bios ecnam caogarik, God the cre- 
ator of things." 1 

The difficulties of the various languages which the mis- 
sionaries had to learn and the total absence of words ex- 
pressing the fundamental truths of religion give one some 
idea of the obstacles they had to overcome before they 
could do effective work among the rude children of the 
Pampa and the Great Chaco. Substantially the same diffi- 
culties confront the missionaries among many of the wild 
Indian tribes of South America even today. 

For more than a week we skirted the eastern borders 
of the Gran Chaco, and as I gazed on its broad morasses 
and dark forests and came in contact here and there with 
some of its half -civilized inhabitants and thought of the 
almost complete oblivion into which the achievements of 
the first evangelists and explorers — worthy of being ranked 
among the world's great heroes — have fallen, I could not 
but recall the words of Sir Thomas Browne in his "Hydri- 
otaphia" in which he thus descants on the vanity of human 
wishes : 

Our fathers find their graves in our short memories, and sadly 
tell us how we may be buried in our survivors. 

Oblivion is not to be hired. The greater part must be content 
to be as though they had not been — to be found in the register of 
God, not in the record of men. 

After a delightful voyage of six days, we arrived at 

1 Op. cit., Vol. IT, p. 57. 

427 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

the site of the old fort of Candelaria, noted, in the annals 
of the conquest, as the spot at which Juan de Ayolas and 
his companions met their deaths at the hands of the In- 
dians. Ayolas was the lieutenant and intimate friend of 
Pedro de Mendoza, the founder of Buenos Aires, and had 
been sent by his chief to open up, by way of the Para- 
guay, a road to the Pacific Ocean. Considering the nature 
of the country through which Ayolas had to pass and the 
deficiency of his equipment, this was truly a tremendous 
undertaking and one of the most daring enterprises of the 
Conquistadores. 

Near the spot where Ayolas was murdered the 
Riquelme and the Nyoac were met by a flotilla of boats, of 
all sizes, aboard which was a large delegation of people 
from Corumba, the chief Brazilian port on the Paraguay. 
All the vessels were gay with bunting and flew both the 
American and the Brazilian flags. Bands played various 
national airs ; vivas and words of welcome burst upon our 
ears from all sides. The whole city was en fete and every- 
body seemed to be at the landing-place or in the streets 
through which we passed on our way to the very com- 
fortable hotel — above whose front door was the word 
"Welcome" formed by brilliant electric lights — which was 
to be our home during our sojourn in this flourishing city 
of Matto Grosso. 

Here we were joined by Cherrie, Miller, Fiala and Sigg, 
whom we had not seen since they had left us in Rio de 
Janeiro. Sigg and Fiala, who had charge of our equip- 
ment and supplies, had everything ready for shipment 
to Sao Luiz de Caceres, further up the Paraguay. Cher- 
rie and Miller had been remarkably successful in their 
work, for they had collected more than eight hundred birds 
and mammals, among which were several new species. 

The second day after our arrival in Corumba, Colonel 
Roosevelt and several members of our expedition started 
for a hunt on the Rio Javary, an affluent of the Paraguay, 

428 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

some distance below the city. I was glad to have the 
opportunity, during their absence, to make the acquaint- 
ance of the good people of Corumba, who left nothing un- 
done to make my sojourn among them as pleasant as pos- 
sible. The city, which counts about twelve thousand in- 
habitants, occupies a site near the old town of Albuquerque 
founded in 1778 by the then governor of Matto Grosso, 
Luiz de Albuquerque de Mello Pereir e Caceres. Although 
it was almost entirely destroyed during the Paraguayan 
war, a half -century ago, it now shows but few traces of the 
great disaster which then overwhelmed it. It is the chief 
commercial center of Matto Grosso and is soon to be con- 
nected by rail with Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It is 
lighted by electricity and, at the time of our visit, an up- 
to-date system of waterworks was being introduced. 

But what interested me much more than these material 
evidences of prosperity of the city was the splendid work 
that was being done here for the instruction of youth and 
for the relief of the poor and the sick. I was particularly im- 
pressed by the achievements of the sons and daughters of 
Don Bosco — the Salesian Fathers and the Sisters of Maria 
Ausiliatrice. 1 Although I had frequently visited their in- 
stitutions in many other parts of South America, their 
methods of instruction, their zeal in behalf of the afflicted 
and abandoned, their marvelous success in dealing with the 
most savage Indian tribes, were always to me a source of 
wonder and admiration. But what astonished me still 
more was to see with my own eyes what they had been 
able to accomplish in a few short years in the most diffi- 
cult of missions and in the most unpromising parts of the 
world. 

The venerable Don Bosco, who was the founder of the 
two religious organizations just named, was one of the 

1 The official name of the congregation of the Salesian Fathers is Society 
of St. Francis de Sales. The full name of the community to which the sisters 
belong is Figlie de Maria Ausiliatrice — Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. 

429 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

most extraordinary men of his time. Born in 1815 of poor 
but pious parents, in the little hamlet of Becchi, near 
Castelnuovo in Piedmont, Giovanni Bosco began life as a 
shepherd boy. At the age of twenty- six, after having 
completed his theological studies, he was raised to the 
priesthood. Not long after this he founded the two so- 
cieties which were to be associated with him in the great 
work which he had so much at heart. In 1874 the rules 
and constitutions of Don Bosco 's new Society of St. Fran- 
cis de Sales were formally approved by Pope Pius IX. 
On January 31, 1888, the sainted priest passed to his 
reward. 

But what wonders he was able to achieve during his 
life, and what wonders have been accomplished by his spir- 
itual children since his lamented demise! If there was 
ever a Utopian, a dreamer of dreams, it was Don Bosco. 
Because of his extraordinary plans for the education and 
elevation of abandoned children, he was regarded as a 
visionary, and some of his well-meaning friends even 
thought he should be placed in a sanitarium, until he 
became more rational. If he were living today, our ex- 
pert alienists would declare that he was suffering from 
paranoia or megalomania. 

When he was alone and penniless, without resources 
of any kind, he talked of the schools and workshops he 
purposed erecting for poor children ; of the spacious play- 
grounds and the large and beautiful church he intended 
to have for them. With a childlike confidence in Divine 
Providence, he felt sure that he would find associates to 
assist him in his work and that he would eventually ob- 
tain the means necessary to carry on the noble works of 
charity which he had planned on a scale that was nothing 
short of gigantic. 

One of the projects of Don Bosco, which the worldly 
wise considered as utterly fatuous, was the conversion and 
civilizing of the wretched Indians of Tierra del Fuego. 

430 




River Front. Corumba. 




Sigg, at the Right, and a Corumba Family. 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

This was deemed absolutely impossible of accomplishment. 
For had not Darwin declared that "man, in this extreme 
part of South America, exists in a lower state of improve- 
ment than in any other part of the world?" Had he not 
written of the Fuegians that "one can hardly make oneself 
believe that they are fellow-creatures and inhabitants of 
the same world 1 " 1 

It was precisely because of their abject misery, because 
of their total abandonment by all the world, because they 
were regarded as the Pariahs of humanity, that the Fue- 
gians so strongly appealed to Don Bosco's all-embracing 
heart. 

The first mission was established in 1889 on Dawson 
Island, which was then a dreary waste. On this same spot 
eight years later was the beautiful village of St. Eaphael, 
with a church, a hospital, workshops, a college for boys, 
a home for the missionaries, a convent school for girls 
under the direction of the sisters of Maria Ausiliatrice 
and sixty comfortable homes for the Indians. Only a few 
years after the establishment of the college, the people 
of Punta Arenas were amazed to hear, in the public square 
of the city, an admirable band concert given by the Fuegian 
boys of St. Eaphael. These same boys were equally pro- 
ficient in singing and elocution. Monsignore Fagnano, pre- 
fect apostolic of Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 
referring to the histrionic powers of the Fuegian youths 
who had given a dramatic entertainment in his honor, on 
the occasion of a visit at St. Eaphael 's, declares in a let- 
ter to the superior general of the Salesians: "I do not 
exaggerate when I assert that I have not assisted at pri- 
vate theatricals more brilliantly performed even at our 
mother house in Turin." 

"Not long after the establishment of St. Eaphael 's, two 
other missions were founded for the benefit of the Fue- 
gians, and with the same happy results. In the short 

ii 'Journal of Besearches," Chap. X. 

431 



,•• 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

space of twenty years after the foundation of the first 
mission in Southern Patagonia, the Salesians had in Tierra 
del Fuego no fewer than fourteen churches and chapels, 
six colleges for boys and seven for girls, and nearly two- 
score missionary residences. Workshops were erected 
where the Indians were taught various arts and trades. 
They were also instructed in agricultural and pastoral 
industries, and their settlements soon began to assume 
the appearance of civilized communities. No less a per- 
sonage than the President of Chile visited the Fuegian 
missions to express his gratitude to the Salesians for their 
marvelous work. And explorers in Tierra del Fuego, like 
Otto Nordenskiold, were loud in their praises of these 
zealous ministers of the Gospel and declared that their 
work ranks high among the achievements of the greatest 
lovers of humanity. 

The dream of Don Bosco was realized. His spiritual 
sons and daughters, by infinite patience, tact, labor and 
devotion, had achieved what anthropologists and men of 
science had positively asserted to be impossible — the civ- 
ilizing and Christianizing of the Fuegians — savages who, 
as Darwin declared, it was hard to believe were " fellow- 
creatures and inhabitants of the same world" with our- 
selves. 

Hearing of the great success of the Salesians in Tierra 
del Fuego and Patagonia, the government of Ecuador ap- 
plied for their assistance in dealing with the Jivaros — 
that ferocious and intractable tribe which, from the days 
of the conquest, had been an unending cause of alarm and 
trouble. The Salesians soon made friends of these wild 
men of the woods and achieved by the cross what the 
sword and the Winchester were impotent to accomplish. 

For generations, no Indians in Brazil had committed 
greater depredations, or inspired more terror among the 
neighboring whites than the Coroados and Bororos of 
Matto Grosso. The government had long made efforts 

432 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

to civilize them, but had failed most signally. Despairing 
of being able to bring them under the yoke of law and 
order, it had finally decided that there could be no peace 
until they were all exterminated. Just then Bishop La- 
sagna, a famous Salesian missionary, appeared and asked 
to have these terrible Indians turned over to the care of 
his confreres. This was done. Schools and workshops 
were at once established, and in a short time the people 
of Matto Grosso were astonished to learn that the dread 
savages had been converted into useful and law-abiding 
members of the community. They became farmers, herds- 
men, carpenters, blacksmiths and tanners, and, instead 
of gaining a livelihood by pillage and murder, supported 
themselves and their families by devoting themselves to the 
arts of peace. The boys, in addition to learning some 
trade, were all taught reading, writing, arithmetic and 
music. The girls, under the direction of the sisters, be- 
sides receiving an elementary education, were instructed 
in the domestic arts. Some specimens of their needlework, 
which I saw, were really admirable. 

I refer specially to the achievements of the Salesians 
among the savages in order to give the reader an idea 
of the wonderful success which has attended their activi- 
ties as missionaries and educators. And what has been 
said of them may also be affirmed of the Sisters of Maria 
Ausiliatrice, who are equally imbued with the spirit of 
their holy founder. 

But I would not have it inferred that the work of 
the children of Don Bosco in South America is confined 
to the instruction and conversion of the Indians, for this 
is far from being the case. In this vast continent, as in 
Europe, their chief occupation is the instruction of the 
poor, not only in the ordinary branches of a college cur- 
riculum, but also, and more particularly, in the various 
arts and trades in the well-equipped and excellent tech- 
nical establishments for which they are everywhere justly 

433 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

famous. How successful they have been may be estimated 
from the fact that they now have establishments in all of 
the South American republics. And the highest authori- 
ties, civil as well as ecclesiastical, of all these nations are 
constantly calling for more of these eminent and devoted 
teachers to assist them in their work of education and 
philanthropy. Wherever there are children to be in- 
structed, especially in arts and trades, the Salesians are 
in demand. It is partly because they have been able so 
well to meet this great need in South America for skilled 
workmen and artisans that their technical schools are 
everywhere so popular and so well patronized. 

But their success as educators is no more remarkable 
than the number and variety of their activities. Kealiz- 
ing the power of the press for good, they print books and 
newspapers and magazines in many languages. And at 
the request of the government, they have taken charge of 
magnetic and meteorological stations from the Strait of 
Magellan to the wilderness of Matto Grosso. They have 
also distinguished themselves as explorers, naturalists, 
ethnologists and, in this respect, have nobly continued, the 
fruitful labors of Falkner, Menendez, Montoya, Eivero and 
Sobraviela. In Colombia they are assuaging the suffer- 
ings and relieving the miseries of more than two thou- 
sand lepers. And everywhere — whether in the bleak plains 
of Tierra del Fuego, or in the chilly uplands of Bolivia, 
or in the sultry sertdos of Matto Grosso — theirs is ever a 
work of love. In the rancho of the savage, or in the lazar- 
etto of the plague-stricken, there is the same zeal and cheer- 
fulness as in the village parish or in the city college or 
seminary. Everywhere they feel that they are working 
in the Master's vineyard and everywhere, therefore, they 
are contented and happy. 

During the nine days I spent in Corumba, I had an ex- 
cellent opportunity of studying the admirable work which 
the children of Don Bosco are, everywhere in South Amer- 

434 




Sisters of Maria Ausiliatrice Teaching 
Bororos Children. 







+,-~*'~#*-A3JLuSi 



Bororos Indians Buildinc; a Home for the Sisters of Maria 
Ausiliatrice. 



ON THE STORIED PAEAGUAY 

ica, accomplishing in college, convent and hospital. Most 
of the fathers and seminarians in charge of the college in 
Corumba are from France and Germany, while the major- 
ity of the sisters are from Lombardy and Piedmont. Com- 
ing from the invigorating climate of central Europe to the 
sweltering region of the Upper Paraguay, they naturally 
suffer very much from the hot and debilitating atmosphere 
of their new homes. But they never complain. On the 
contrary, they go about their work as cheerfully as if 
they were in their homes on the Po or the Ehine. 

I called to visit the classes in the convent school one 
day when the temperature and humidity were unusually 
high. To me the heat was almost intolerable. Turning 
to a gentle little nun whose cheeks still retained the bloom 
of youth and who had been reared among the foothills 
of the Italian Alps, I said: "Sister, how do you endure 
this oppressive, suffocating heat?" "Oh, Padre mio," she 
replied with sweetness and childlike simplicity, "Vamor di 
Bio tutto fa facile" — The love of God makes everything 
easy. Had I asked all her companions the same ques- 
tion, I should have received substantially the same answer. 
Love enables them to do joyfully what worldly rewards 
could never induce them to undertake. 

Among the religious I met in this convent was one 
who had just arrived from the mother-house in Italy. She 
held the office of visitor-general and was then making a 
tour of inspection of the numerous establishments of her 
community in South America. She was of gentle birth 
and in her youth had been delicately nurtured. Highly 
educated and cultured she, among her many accomplish- 
ments, spoke French, Spanish and Portuguese as fluently 
and as correctly as her own musical Italian. She was then 
on her way to the Indian missions of her community in 
Matto Grosso. As I knew their location was far away 
in the wilderness and full twenty days' journey on horse- 
back from Cuyaba, the nearest center of population, I 

435 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

expressed my surprise that she should undertake such a 
long and fatiguing journey. "Non e gran cosa. Bono buona 
cavaliera" — It is nothing much. I am a good horse- 
woman, she answered. Then I was told by one of the 
other nuns how the first sisters who went to found the 
Coroados mission had been obliged to spend thirty-two 
days on the road, and that, too, during the rainy season. 
When they reached their destination, in the depths of the 
forest, they had no shelter except the tents they had 
brought with them and were, besides, almost destitute of 
provisions. And their tents were their only homes until 
a palm-thatched hut was built for them. Here, far away 
from all communication with the outside world — far from 
the telegraph and their base of supplies — they cour- 
ageously entered upon their noble work, civilizing and 
Christianizing the rude women and girls of the most fero- 
cious tribes of central Brazil. I could see, while talking 
with the mother-visitor, that she had left a part of her 
heart with these wild children of the wilderness, for she was 
counting the days until she could see them again and note 
the progress they had made since her preceding visit. She 
was, truly, one of the world's heroines, and yet the extent 
of her heroic work of charity is known only to the Master 
for whom she has made the most sublime of sacrifices. 

The achievements of the sons and daughters of Don 
Bosco are, indeed, wonderful. But more astonishing to me 
is the marvelous growth of the two communities to which 
they belong and which they have so glorified by their la- 
bors and virtues. It is barely forty years since their first 
missionary band set foot on South American soil. It 
was then only a diminutive seedling. But now it has be- 
come a great tree which, like a giant banyan, has its roots 
in every republic of the entire continent. According to 
the latest available statistics, the Salesians in South Amer- 
ica alone have a membership of nearly fifteen hundred 
priests and brothers, with nearly two hundred establish- 

436 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

ments of various kinds. In their schools and colleges there 
are more than forty thousand pupils. The establishments 
of the sisters of Maria Ausiliatrice are quite as flourish- 
ing as those of the Salesians and almost equally numerous. 
In their thoroughly up-to-date asylums, orphanages, hos- 
pitals, lazarettos, schools and colleges these ministering 
angels are now devoting their lives to the spiritual and 
corporal welfare of more than forty thousand people — 
of all ages and races and conditions of life — in South 
America alone. Their success is due not only to their 
zeal and abounding charity, but also to the special prepa- 
ration which each one of them makes for her task in the 
classroom, the isolating ward and the workroom, in which 
they teach their young charges all the dainty handicraft 
which contributes so greatly towards making home 
attractive. 

The shepherd boy of Becchi and the dreamer of Turin 
was a seer and a thaumaturgus and the world knew it not. 
His methods were not its methods and his marvelous 
achievements must to it ever remain a mystery. Never, 
perhaps, in the history of the Church has the influence 
of any founder of a religious community been more benefi- 
cent and widespread or more quickly felt in every quarter 
of the habitable globe. I have referred to the achieve- 
ments of his spiritual children in South America only. 
This is not the place to tell of their labors in many and 
widely separated parts of the Old World. But millions 
of people, who never heard of Don Bosco during his life, 
now bless his name when they behold the tireless and well- 
directed efforts of his sons and daughters for the ameliora- 
tion of the poor, the afflicted and the abandoned. In an- 
other place, I have had occasion to speak of the achieve- 
ments of the Conquistadores of the Cross in South Amer- 
ica during colonial times. 1 What I have said of their zeal 
and charity and spirit of sacrifice I can apply with equal 

* ' ' Along the Andes and Down the Amazon, ' ' Chap. XXII. 

437 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

truth to the faithful sons and daughters of Don Bosco — 
those modern Conquistadores of the Cross — who in the 
homes of peace have ever been an inspiration and a bene- 
diction, and who in the forest primeval of Matto Grosso, 
not to speak of other regions, 

..." With the Cross alone, when arms had failed, 

Achieved a peaceful triumph o'er the foes, 

And gave that weary land the blessings of repose. ' ' 

After a week's absence, Colonel Eoosevelt and his com- 
panions returned from their hunting expedition on the Rio 
Taquary. They were all in high feather, especially the 
Colonel, for, among the specimens which his trusty rifle 
had secured, was a fine, large jaguar. When, six years 
previously, while he was still in the White House, I first 
broached to him our joint trip to South America, the thing 
that most strongly appealed to his hunter soul was the 
longed-for opportunity to bag a large, full-grown jaguar. 
Now that he had been successful, he felt that he had been 
richly rewarded for his long and fatiguing tramp through 
a steaming marsh under a blazing, tropical sun — something 
which would have dismayed anyone but a born Nimrod. 

The day following the return of our hunters, we were 
all aboard the light-draft side-wheeler Nyoac, on our way 
to the Fazenda Sao Joao on the Cuyaba River — nearly four 
days' journey by boat from Corumba. Our little craft was 
crowded to its utmost capacity. For, in addition to our 
increased party, there were our equipment, luggage, cots, 
provisions and supplies of all kinds for our naturalists 
and explorers. 

The scenery along the banks of the river was essentially 
like that between Corumba and Asuncion. But the 
palmares, or clumps of palm trees, were not so extensive 
or interesting as those that had so enchanted us farther 
down the Paraguay. In lieu of these, however, the beauty 

438 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

of the landscape was wonderfully enhanced by low moun- 
tain ranges, not unlike those which encircle Lake Como and 
Lake Maggiore. 

There are few houses along the Upper Paraguay, and 
the greater number of these are of a very primitive char- 
acter. Most of them are occupied by mestizos and 
Negroes. Occasionally one sees also an Indian hut or 
encampment. Most of these habitations are surrounded 
by small fields of maize and mandioca, as well as by clumps 
of orange, lime, banana and guava trees. What with fish 
and game, both of which are abundant, and the products 
of their small plantations, the inhabitants of these parts 
are never stinted for the means of subsistence. Besides 
these articles of food, most of these apparently very 
poor people manage to get an occasional quarter of beef 
from a neighboring fazenda. And, notwithstanding the 
poorly furnished hovels in which many of the natives along 
the river spend their lives, their lot is incomparably bet- 
ter than that of countless multitudes in the slums of the 
large cities of Europe and the United States. They never 
suffer from cold or hunger, or the lack of fresh air and 
sunshine, and, knowing naught of the luxuries of our mod- 
ern civilization, they live a life of comparative ease and 
contentment. 

Shortly after eight o'clock in the morning — the fourth 
day after leaving Corumba — we were surprised, as we were 
rounding a curve of the Cuyaba River, to see two gayly 
decked river steamers just a short distance ahead of us. 
One of them was occupied by Dr. Joaquin A. da Costa 
Marques, the President of Matto Grosso, 1 who, with quite 
a delegation, had come all the way from the capital of the 
state — several days' distance by boat — to bid us welcome 

*If extent of territory over which the chief executive of Matto Grosso 
rules entitles him to the name of president, instead of governor, then, indeed, 
he richly deserves this distinction, for the area of this state is more than nine 
times that of the states of New York and Pennsylvania combined. 

439 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and, with other members of his family, to dispense what 
we found to be the most lavish hospitality during our de- 
lightful visit to the great fazenda of Sao Joao. 

Among those who had accompanied the President and 
his party was Dom Ambrosio Dayde, a young French Fran- 
ciscan, who had come as the representative of the ven- 
erable archbishop of Cuyaba to invite me to be the guest 
of His Grace in his archiepiscopal city. But the arrival of 
the rainy season, which made it necessary for us to hasten 
towards our objective in the Amazon Valley, made this 
visit impossible. Never did I regret more my inability 
to accept proffered hospitality than on this occasion. I 
wished not only to have the pleasure of meeting the illus- 
trious metropolitan, whose praise was on the lips of every- 
one in Matto Grosso, but I was also most desirous of mak- 
ing the acquaintance of the good people of this historic 
old city of central Brazil. 

The archbishop could not have chosen for me a more 
charming traveling companion than Fray Ambrosio. For, 
besides being highly educated, he was one of the best types 
of Gallic culture and enthusiasm. And, in addition to 
being the superior of the seminary of Cuyaba, he is an 
able and enterprising journalist. His weekly paper, 
A Cruz, is a potent influence for good among all classes 
and has a surprisingly large circulation for a sparsely 
populated region like Matto Grosso. Dom Ambrosio be- 
longs to that ardent and peerless type of French mission- 
ary of which his noble compatriots, Jean de Brebeuf and 
Pere Marquette, were such brilliant examples. Joyous, 
dashing, courageous, he would, by discarding his rough, 
gray habit, be equally at home as a commander of a sub- 
marine or as the chief of a fleet of aeroplanes. 

From the Fazenda Sao Joao, where we spent two most 
enjoyable days, we proceeded to a point on the Sao 
Lourengo, a short distance above its confluence with the 
Cuyaba. In the forests and marshes bordering this sec- 

440 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

tion of the Sao Lourengo there was said to be an abundance 
of big game, and our naturalists started thither in high 
expectations of making important additions to their al- 
ready large collection of birds and mammals. But they 
were doomed to disappointment. Heavy rains greatly in- 
terfered with their plans. But, notwithstanding these 
tropical downpours, they would have had a certain meas- 
ure of success had not their dogs, on which they had 
greatly relied, proved almost worthless. 

After almost three days spent on the Sao Lourenco, we 
started for Sao Luiz Caceres, the last town — the natives 
call it a city — on the Upper Paraguay. Personally, I was 
most eager to make this part of our journey, for it lay 
through a region of romance and legend second to but 
few sections of South America. For the earliest Con- 
quistadores, those marvelous men who penetrated every 
part of the continent — no matter how great the obstacles 
or dangers — had traversed all the vast region from the 
Cuyaba to the Rio Jauru, near San Luis Caceres. 

Among the most notable adventurers to these distant 
regions were Domingo de Irala, Nuflo de Chaves, Ulric 
Schmidt and the famous Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. 
Irala was the first of the conquerors to open up a com- 
munication between the Eio de la Plata and Peru. Hav- 
ing ascended the Paraguay almost to the point where it 
receives the waters of the Sao Lourenco, he disembarked 
on the sixth of January at a place which, in honor of the 
feast of the day, he named Los Reyes — The Kings. Thence 
he proceeded in a northwesterly direction until he reached 
the river Guapay, which is the upper continuation of the 
Mamore and Madeira. Crossing this, he was amazed to 
find a number of his countrymen who belonged to the 
gobernacion — government — of Pero Anzures, one of the 
officers of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru. Irala 
here encamped and sent Nuflo de Chaves with three other 
messengers to La Gasca who was then governor of Peru, 

441 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

After successfully executing his commission, Nuflo de 
Chaves was given a governorship in what is now known as 
Bolivia. Soon afterwards he founded the city which has 
since been known as Santa Cruz de la Sierra. 

To effect this much-desired communication between the 
Rio de la Plata and Peru, Irala spent a year and a half 
on the Paraguay and in the wild and unexplored region 
bordering the Guapay. Only those who are familiar with 
the character of the territory traversed by this daring 
Conquistador can realize the magnitude of his achieve- 
ment. Considering the dangers and difficulties to be en- 
countered, this opening up of a route from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific was scarcely a less extraordinary feat than 
Orellana's epoch-making voyage down the Amazon. 

But while I could not but recall the adventures of Irala 
and his gallant companions, as we revisited the scenes 
which were so familiar to them nearly four centuries ago, 
I found more pleasure in dwelling on the careers of two 
other heroes of the conquest who have always seemed to 
me to be among the most interesting and picturesque char- 
acters of early South American history. One of these 
was Ulrich Schmidt, an enterprising agent of the great 
German house of Fugger and Welzer, of Augsburg. The 
other was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the successor of 
Pedro de Mendoza, the founder of Buenos Aires and 
the first adelantado of the province of the Rio de la 
Plata. 

Aside from their wonderful adventures, these two men 
— one a Bavarian commercial traveler, the other an An- 
dalusian cavalier — have always had a special interest for 
me, for they were the first two historians of the conquest 
of the vast regions which border the Parana and the Para- 
guay. Neither of them, it is true, actually wrote the books 
which bear their names. Schmidt's narrative of his twenty 
years' experiences in South America was written by some- 
one — whose name is as yet unknown — from data supplied 

442 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

by the adventurous Teuton, 1 while the "Commentaries" 
of Alvar Nunez were written by his secretary, Pero 
Fernandez. 

To a traveler in the Upper Paraguay region, both these 
books are still of absorbing interest. They not only give 
a graphic account of the country as it appeared to the 
Conquistadores nearly four centuries ago, but they also 
perfectly describe many things as they are found today. 
Indeed, in certain details, they have all the accuracy of a 
sixteenth-century Baedeker. 

Eecounting the experiences of his party in the inun- 
dated plains of the Paraguay, Schmidt, in his quaint lan- 
guage, tells us "the halfe of our people was deadly sicke, 
and that by reason of the water, through which wee were 
to wade for thirtie dayes together, so that wee could never 
turne aside or get out of the same. ' ' 2 This is a vivid 
statement of conditions as they are found to this day dur- 
ing the rainy season. 

Speaking of chigoes, which are such a pest everywhere 
in tropical countries, our German adventurer declares that 
"These little vermin, if they lay hold of the toes of the 
feete, or any other part of the body, they knaw and enter 
alwaies more and more deeply in and at length become 
wormes such as are found in our filberds ; yet, if it be done 
in time, this mischief may be prevented, that it shall not 
hurt, but, if deferring the cure, it be neglected, at length, 
by eating and gnawing, it consumeth and corrupteth whole 
toes." 3 

Eeferring to the articles given to the Indians in ex- 

1 The title of Schmidt's work is in English: "A True and Agreeable 
Description of Some Principal Indian Lands and Islands, which have not been 
Recorded in Former Chronicles, but have now been first Explored amid great 
Danger during the Voyage of Ulrich Schmidt, of Straubing, and most carefully 
described by him." Published by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1891. 

2 "Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes. " Vol. XVII, p. 36, 
Glasgow, 1906. 

8 Ibid., p. 53. 

443 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

change for gold plates and silver rings, our wide-awake 
agent of Welzer and Fugger, who were probably the most 
noted bankers and merchants of their day, informs us that 
articles "made in Germany" were even at that early 
period as popular as at the present time. "For all this" 
— the plates of gold and the rings of silver — he tells us, 
"our Captain gave the King of the Indians an Hatchet, 
Knives, and Beades, or Pater-nosters, Barber's Scizzars, 
and such like, made at Nuremberg." 1 

Although Schmidt's voyage has appeared in many lan- 
guages, and will always be of value to the student of early 
exploration in South America, "The Commentaries" of 
Alvar Nunez are far more important and exact. His ac- 
count, as given by his secretary, of his voyage up the Para- 
guay; his observations on the Sao Lourenco — which he 
explored for some distance — and the lagoons along the Rio 
Jauru which enters the Paraguay only a short distance 
below Sao Luis Caceres ; his remarks on the various Indian 
tribes, as well as on the fauna and the flora of the country 
through which he passed, exhibit a keen and intelligent 
observer. Even details did not escape his quick eye. Thus, 

*Op. eit. 36. "Voyage of Ulrich Schmidt to the Bivers La Plata and Para- 
guay," p. 48, published by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1891. By far the 
best recent edition of Schmidt's book is "Viaje de Ulrich Schmidel al Eio de 
la Plata, Con notas Bibliograficas y Biograficas, " by Bartolome Mitre, with 
"Prologo, Traduccion y Anotaciones, " by Samuel A. Lafone Queveda, Buenos 
Aires, 1903. 

Even the vessel in which Schmidt went to America belonged to Germans — 
to the Seville house of Welzer and Niedhart, a branch of the house of Fugger 
and Welzer, of Augsburg. It is proper to remark that this occurred during 
the reign of Charles V, who counted the Germans as well as the Spaniards 
among his subjects. "This explains how the Spanish government, exclusive 
and jealous of all foreign interference in its affairs in the Indies, allowed 
Germans and Flemings, with their vessels, their merchandise, and their men, to 
take part in such considerable numbers in the expedition of Don Pedro Men- 
doza." "Conquest of the Biver Plate," p. XXV, published by the Hakluyt 
Society, London, 1891. It was the same Charles V who made an immense 
grant of land to the Welzers in Venezuela, whence Philip von Hutten and his 
fellow-adventurers started out on their famous quest of El Dorado. 

444 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

what lie says about the lower part of the Sao Lourengo 
River, which he sounded for some distance, is as true today 
as it was at the time of his memorable voyage in the first 
half of the sixteenth century. Similarly, what he tells us 
regarding the habits of the capibara — he calls it "a kind 
of water pig" — tallies perfectly with our own observations 
respecting this singular animal. 

To me one of the most remarkable things in connection 
with this voyage of Alvar Nunez to the Upper Paraguay 
was the fact that he actually erected a church near the 
confluence of the Sao Lourengo and the Paraguay. A 
church in a country which is today but little more than 
a vast swamp and which is almost uninhabited ! x But 
when the adventurous Andalusian was here these parts 
were thickly populated by Indians and it was for their 
benefit that he built a place of worship and provided them 
with priests to instruct them in the doctrines of the Church. 

Was it but a momentary fancy? Whether it was or not, 
I am not ashamed to admit that I seemed to feel the pres- 
ence of Alvar Nunez as the Nyoac glided through the wa- 
ters of the Sao Lourengo and the Paraguay, following in 
the wake of the feluccas and brigantines of the daring cava- 
lier who served his country so well, but who, probably more 
than any man of his time, experienced all the divers effects 
due to the sudden turns of * 'giddy Fortune's furious fickle 
wheel. ' ' 

In traversing under the Southern Cross the lands which 
were so familiar to one of the noblest and most humane 
of the Conquistadores, 2 I felt almost as if I were in some 

1 "This," says Alvar Nunez, "was the first settlement of the campo; it 
was a little over a half a league in extent and contained eight hundred houses 
of agriculturists." "The Commentaries," p. 201, published by the Hakluyt 
Society. 

2 Those who are familiar with the life and achievements of Alvar Nuiiez 
will agree with the historian, Padre Guevara, that he was "a man who for 
his rectitude, justice and Christian conduct deserved a statue" — merecia esta- 
tua. The same author further declares that the adelautado was "uno de 

445 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

mysterious way communing with an old friend. For dec- 
ades I had, in many climes, been following in his footsteps. 
From the vine-clad slopes of Andalusia to the dismal ever- 
glades of Florida; from the bayous of Louisiana to the 
Gulf of California and the valley of Anahuac; through 
the Araucanian forests of Brazil; along the camalote- 
covered waterways of South America's Southland, I had 
gazed on the same marvels of earth and sea that had so 
stirred the soul of Alvar Nunez and made him long to 
achieve great things for God and country. And now I had 
met him again, at least in imagination, in the heart of 
the famous Laguna de los Xarayes, 1 in the fabled island 
home of El Gran Moxo who lived in a magnificent palace 
adorned with vessels and furniture of gold and silver; 
with doors of bronze near which were living lions held by 
chains of gold; with a large moon, like a disk of silver 
which, supported by a lofty tower, illumined the surround- 
ing lake ; which was surrounded by gardens and groves that 

los hombres mas juiciosos de su siglo: recto, prudente, entero y de sano cora- 
zon. . . . prendas que no bastaron a hacerle respectable a, la fortuna perse- 
quidora de hombres grandes. La Florida lo cautivo con inhumanidad, la Asump- 
cion la aprisiono con infamia; pero en una y otra parte fue egemplar de modera- 
eion, mas respetable entre los indios de la Florida, que entre los espafioles de la 
Asumpcion. " " Historia del Paraguay, Eio de la Plata y Tueuman, in Colec- 
cion de obras y Documentos Eelativos a la Historia Antigua y Moderna de las 
Provincias de La Plata, ' ' by Pedro de Angelis, Tom. II, p. 109, Buenos Aires, 
1836. 

1 This legendary lake, which is indicated on the first maps of South Amer- 
ica, was supposed by the early adventurers to be the source of the Paraguay. 
Traversing this region during the rainy season, when a vast area is under 
water, it was easy for them to mistake a temporary inundation for a perma- 
nent lake. Eeclus in his ' ' Nouvelle Geographie Universelle, ' ' Vol. XIX, p. 
425, states that this inland sea, during high water, has a length of three hun- 
dred and fifty miles from north to south and a width, in places, of more than 
a hundred and fifty. This location for the abode of a wealthy potentate was, 
from what we now know, quite as impossible as that assigned by Sir Walter 
Raleigh for the residence of the Gilded Man in the lowlands of the Orinoco, or 
by Philip von Hutten, in the dark recesses of the Amazonian selva. But the 
believers in El Dorado always exhibited a decided penchant for fixing his 
habitation in the most unlikely places in the entire continent. 

446 



ON THE STORIED PARAGUAY 

were watered from a great central fountain whose basin 
was of silver and whose irrigating pipes were of gold; 
in which were an altar and ever-lighted lamps of precious 
metal ; a blazing sun of purest gold which was there adored 
by El Moxo's benighted subjects, and countless other mar- 
vels which surpassed the inventions of the most unbridled 
fancy. 1 It was the old story, in a different setting, of the 
Enchanted City of the Caesars, of the Gilded Man of Lake 
Guatavita, of the Golden City of Manoa in Guiana, of 

"Imperial El Dorado roofed with gold; 
Shadows to which, despite all shocks of change, 
All onset of capricious accident, 
Men clung with yearning hope which would not die. ' ' 

x For an interesting account of the palace of El Gran Moxo see Canto V 
in ' ' La Argentina, ' ' by Martin del Barco Centenera, the first edition of which 
appeared in Lisbon in 1602. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

The golden sun adored in the fabled palace of El Gran 
Moxo— 

Es de oro fino el sol alii adorado 

— like the palace itself and like the mythical island on which 
it was located and the legendary lake by which it was sur- 
rounded, interested me because it was another of the many 
illustrations of the wonderful mythopceic faculty which the 
Conquistadores exhibited when, impelled by the auri sacra 
fames, they dreamed of discovering in the depths of the 
forest, or in the heart of the jungle, untold riches which 
would rival those that rewarded the prowess of Cortes 
in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru. The originator of this 
story of the golden sun in the palace of the Great Moxo 
was, according to Padre Guevara, one of the companions 
of Alvar Nunez in his famous expedition up the Paraguay. 
He had during his wandering heard of the great golden 
sun in the temple of Cuzco and it was an easy matter for 
his lively imagination to transfer both sun and temple from 
the capital of the Incas to a forested island in the fictitious 
Laguna de los Xarayes. Thus was El Gran Moxo given 
"a local habitation and a name," and thus, too, were 
the fortune hunters of the conquest provided with another 
objective toward which to bend their energies in their lust 
of gold and adventure. 

It was while I was musing one evening on the legendary 
past of the Upper Paraguay that a companion called my 
attention to that glorious orb which, as Byron phrases, 

448 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

it, was "a worship" before the mystery of its making was 
revealed — that ministering sun of the Almighty 

Which gladdened on their mountain tops, the hearts 
Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they poured 
Themselves in orisons. 

The Nyoac was slowly threading its way through the 
mazes of the islanded, palm-fringed Paraguay. The long, 
gentle slopes of the sun-kissed Sierra Amolar were a riot 
of splendor and color. Masses of feathery and cirro- 
stratus clouds floated above the mountain's crest and ex- 
tended almost to the zenith of a sky of profoundest azure 
and of abysmal depth. There were delicately molded bars 
of vapor which extended halfway across the heaven ; there 
were parallel streaks and multitudinous silk filaments 
finely drawn, some straight, some gracefully bent, but all 
perfectly motionless and of infinite variety and detail. 

But it was the gorgeous, ever-changing colors of these 
vaporous bands and lines and plumes that most enthralled 
our gaze. There were clouds of blue, and green and indigo 
and scarlet — some fringed with orange, others with car- 
mine, and others still with purest white or blazing gold. 
And as the sun dropped behind the mountain rampart, a 
conflagration of heavenly rose towered above the deep 
purples and intense azures which veiled the tree-clad 
slopes of the Sierra. Rarely have I seen such glory of 
color, such superb scenery of the sky. 

With the advent of the short, tropical twilight, the 
shades of evening began to lower and silence brooded over 
the vast papyrus-covered plain. A mantle of silvery gray 
enwrapped the darkening world and myriads of fire-flies 
began to dance their merry rounds. Then the pale, 
crescent moon slowly arose above the sealike plain. The 
lofty palms with their noble crowns cast dark shadows 
upon the rippling waters which were soon converted into 

449 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

mazes of silver by the effulgent moonbeams. The cadenced 
voice of the meandering stream — or was it that of the 
mae d'agua, the beauteous siren of Brazilian fable 1 — 
seemed to ever-wakeful fancy to sing a nocturne — so sweet, 
so soothing — that one felt that one was in the paradise 
which legend once placed in these parts, or in a land of 
streams and charmed sunsets 

"Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel." 

The mysterious and romantic stillness of the night had 
succeeded "the trembling magic of the evening hour" and 
the spell of the Paraguay was still upon Colonel Eoosevelt 
and myself with all its enthralling power. Time and again 
we found our conversations on literature and science and 
history interrupted by the entrancing beauty of a moonlit 
island, or the shimmering undulations at a sharp turn of 
the river, or the wavering lights and shadows on the flanks 
of Amolar, which was then veiled in an opaline mist like 
thinnest lawn. "Wonderful, wonderful!" exclaimed the 
Colonel. "I do not think I have ever witnessed more quiet 
and enchanting scenes than those we have gazed on during 
the past few hours." 

As we rose from our comfortable camp chairs to retire 
for the night, we discovered that our associates had all, 
without our observing it, preceded us to rest. Every square 
foot of available space on the deck was occupied by a cot, 
for no one thought of occupying his close and sultry state- 
room when he could enjoy the cool and refreshing breeze 
which always made our nights on the Paraguay so restful 

1 The mae d 'agua — water-mother — is, in many parts of Brazil, believed to 
be a beautiful woman vestured in long, golden hair, with fascinating eyes, and 
with a voice so sweet that no one who hears it can resist the temptation to 
plunge into the water in order to hear and see her better. Unlike the mermaid, 
she has a perfect human form and fascinates by her beauty as well as by the 
sweetness of her voice. She is said to have a special attraction for children. 
See the beautiful poem of A. Gonc,alves Dias on "A Mae d'Agua. " 

450 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

and so delightful. Many of our party had hammocks, 
instead of cots, and those, with their wearied and sleeping 
occupants, were slung between the stanchions of the ves- 
sels exactly as described by the Brazilian poet in the lines 

Pende de lenho a lenho a rede extensa : 
Alii descanso toma o corpo lasso. 

The afternoon following the splendid "drama of sun- 
set" we had an exhibition of cumulous clouds that sur- 
passed anything in all my experience. I had often, during 
our voyage up the Paraguay, gazed with ever-increasing 
delight at the wondrously beautiful cloud-flocks — "flocks 
of Admetus under Apollo's keeping" — and admired the 
soaring, advancing, retreating, ever-changing masses of 
fleecy, alabaster, domelike clouds, but I never saw anything 
comparable to the gently-floating, grandly-rolling masses 
of vapor which were incessantly transforming into trees 
and castles and animals of many and bizarre kinds, as if 
they were under the subtle action of Merlin's magic wand. 
I had on several occasions observed these marvelous ef- 
fects of cloud metamorphosis while traversing the llanos 
of Venezuela and Colombia, but they were by far surpassed 
by those I witnessed in the legendary kingdom of the 
Great Moxo. For, among the curious cloud-forms there 
were a giant jacare and a colossal tapir followed by a 
plunging dolphin and an "elf with luminous hair astride 
upon a sea-horse." Shakespeare must have had visions 
like these when he wrote 

Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish, 
A vapour, sometime like a bear or lion, 
A tower 'd citadel, a pendant rock, 
A forked mountain, or blue promontory, 
With trees upon't that, nod unto the world 
And mock our eyes with air. 
451 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Of a different type of beauty, but no less fascinating, 
were the countless species of birds of every form and 
color and size, from the tiny picaflor — humming-bird — 
that, like a living gem of rainbow hues, flits from flower 
to flower to drain their perfumed nectaries, 1 to the great 
jabiru stork, which builds its huge nest on the lofty 
branches of the wild fig or the wide-spreading ceiba. They 
were to be seen everywhere, gliding through the water, 
scattered over the sand-bars and mud-flats along the river, 
perched on the belts of trees which bordered each bank, 
soaring above the picturesque palmares which always gave 
such beauty to the ever-varying landscape. There were 
immense numbers of patos reales — Muscovy ducks — 
herons, cormorants, wood-ibises, crested screamers, snow- 
white egrets and roseate spoonbills. In the water were 
snakebirds, of which nothing was seen except their long, 
slender, serpentlike heads and necks. There were noisy, 
multi-colored parrots and screaming red and blue macaws. 
There were chattering parakeets entering and leaving their 
odd communal nests in the forked branches of the larger 
trees on the river's edge. 

All the low, marsh lands of South America are remark- 
able for their wealth of birdlife. But in no part of it, not 
even in the lagoons and morasses which border the Meta 
and the Orinoco, have I ever seen such a wonderful ex- 
hibition of the feathered tribe as in the half-submerged 
region drained by the Upper Paraguay. It is not only 
a paradise for birds, but should also be a paradise for 
ornithologists. The region has, as yet, been only partially 
explored, and there are still many new species here to re- 
ward the enthusiastic field worker. And no place is more 
easily accessible. With a small motor-boat, one could 
profitably spend years studying the life-histories of the 
strange and interesting birds of every kind which make 

1 The Brazilians also call the humming-bird beija-flor — kiss-flower — while 
the Indians give it the picturesque name, coracy-dba — tresses of the sun. 

452 




The Nyoac on the Upper Paraguay. 




Our Naturalists at Work on the Nyoac. 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

their home about the bayous and the broad, grass-covered 
plains of southwestern Matto Grosso. 

Although the mammals of South America count fewer 
species than the birds, they are no less interesting. This 
is particularly true of those archaic forms which, like the 
sloth, the ant-eater, the tapir and the armadillo, are sur- 
viving types of such giant monsters as the megatherium, 
the megalonyx and the mylodon. Among the larger mam- 
mals that we saw, as we made our way up the Paraguay, 
were the red marsh deer, the yellowish-red cebu, the black 
howler and the gregarious capybaras. The last-named ani- 
mals were frequently seen squatting on the bank, but on 
the approach of our vessel they hastily plunged into the 
river and disappeared beneath its tawny flood. 

Shortly before reaching the embouchure of the famous 
Bio Jauru, into which Nuflo de Chaves entered on his 
famous journey to Peru, we stopped for an hour or two 
at the little village of Descalvado, so named from an emi- 
nence nearby which is known as Morro Escalvado — Bald 
Mountain. There is here quite a large saladeiro — meat- 
curing establishment — and a tannery, which belong to the 
Farquhar Syndicate. The principal houses are occupied 
by the managers of the large ranch — on which there are 
about seventy thousand cattle — which belongs to the same 
syndicate. The assistant manager was an experienced cat- 
tleman from Texas, who could scarcely restrain tears of 
joy when he saw the American flag flying from the mast of 
the Nyoac. "You don't know how good it is," he said, "to 
see Old Glory in this faraway land." Just then he dropped 
an unopened letter which had been handed him. Quickly 
picking it up he feelingly remarked: "This is something 
precious. I would not lose it for a thousand dollars. It 
is a letter from my wife, whom I was obliged to leave in 
Texas until I could prepare a fit place for her here. I am 
expecting her by the next steamer. Then," pointing to a 
cozy little house which had just been nicely painted and 

453 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

renovated, "we shall make our home here amid this group 
of orange and lemon trees. And then life will again be 
worth living." 

The day after leaving Descalvado — January fifth — we 
were in sight of the long range of mountains which ex- 
tends from Sao Luiz de Caceres to the city of Cuyaba, where 
it is known as Serra Azul — Blue Ridge. We had at last 
left the Laguna de los Xarayes — the Mar Dulce of some 
of the early annalists — behind us. The number of houses 
and plantations on both sides of the river began to in- 
crease and gave indications of our approach to a center 
of civilization. 

Shortly after luncheon, as I was standing on the star- 
board side of the Nyoac, I noticed a group of people stand- 
ing in the front of a palm-thatched house on the river's 
bank. In their midst was a man mounted on horseback, 
who was closely scanning our vessel as if he were expect- 
ing someone. He then shouted two or three times to our 
pilot, and, getting a satisfactory answer, at once turned 
his steed toward Sao Luiz de Caceres and soon disappeared 
in the intervening forest. I subsequently learnt the mean- 
ing of this strange proceeding. There are no telephone 
or telegraph lines between points on the Upper Paraguay, 
and, as a consequence, the only way of conveying infor- 
mation quickly from place to place is the primitive one 
of employing a special messenger. The officials of Caceres 
wished to know the exact hour of our arrival and had, 
therefore, sent the horseman down the river to be on the 
lookout for us and to report to them as soon as the Nyoac 
hove in sight. I love to think that this messenger had not 
been waiting for us so long as our Cuyaba friends at the 
Fazenda de Sao Joao, who were in daily expectation of 
our arrival for a whole week. 

Sao Luiz de Caceres is an interesting old town which 
claims nearly ten thousand inhabitants. According to De 
Castelnau, the plain on which it stands is about sixty feet 

454 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

above the Paraguay. It was founded in 1768 by the fourth 
captain-general of Matto Grosso, Luiz de Albuquerque de 
Mello Pereira e Caceres, who was probably the ablest ad- 
ministrator this part of Brazil has ever known. Although 
the town now bears a part of his long cognomen, the name 
given it by its founder was Villa Maria do Paraguay. Stu- 
dents of history and geography cannot but regret this 
change of name, of which we find so many instances in all 
parts of Brazil. Thus the old capital of Matto Grosso was 
originally called Villa Bella. Now it is known as Matto 
Grosso. So also was the presidio of Albuquerque — named 
after its illustrious founder — on its change of site, called 
Corumba, or rather to give its full name, Santa Cruz de 
Corumba. In many cases the names of places have been 
changed not once, but several times. The consequence is 
endless confusion and error. 

Our horseman had evidently delivered his message 
promptly, as on our arrival at the landing-place a vast 
concourse of men, women and children were there to greet 
us. There was also the usual accompaniment of every 
Brazilian function — a brass band. Besides this, although 
it was still more than an hour before sunset, there was a 
display of fireworks. This part of our reception seemed 
to give special pleasure to the younger generation, which 
was composed of whites, blacks, Indians and mestizos of 
all degrees of blood-fusion. 

We were escorted to the large and comfortable home 
of Lieutenant Lyra — the astronomer of our expedition — 
where quarters had been prepared for a number of our 
party. But I was scarcely inside the house when the 
French consul — a consul from la belle France in this out- 
of-the-way part of the world ! — introduced himself and told 
me that he had been requested by the Superior of the 
College of Sao Luiz — which is conducted by the Franciscan 
Fathers — to ask me to accept the hospitality of that insti- 
tution. He had scarcely finished speaking when the good 

455 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

superior himself, accompanied by his assistant, appeared, 
and renewed the request that I should be their guest dur- 
ing our stay in the city. I, accordingly, left Colonel Boose- 
velt and some of our other associates in the hands of Lieu- 
tenant Lyra, and soon found myself the delighted guest 
of the sons of St. Francis, under the hospitable roof of 
the College of Sao Luiz. 

Although it is only a few years since the college was 
founded, its praise is on the lips of everyone in Matto 
Grosso. "You will find this a most excellent institution," 
said Colonel Eondon to me the day before we reached 
Caceres. "It is patronized by the best families of the 
country and is a credit to the city." I visited the pupils 
in their classrooms and found them surprisingly intelligent 
and deeply interested in their studies. Most of them lived 
in the city, but a goodly number of them had their homes 
in distant villages and fazendas. 

With the superior, I visited the pro-cathedral, and one 
of the first men I met there was a Negro from Chicago. 
To those of our party who had thought that Sao Luiz 
de Caceres was little more than an aldeia — Indian village 
— it was a matter of no little astonishment to find that it, 
like Corumba, was the seat of a bishopric. The metro- 
politan of these two episcopal sees is the Archbishop of 
Cuyaba. And Cuyaba, it may be observed, was a bishopric 
before Baltimore — the oldest diocesan seat in the United 
States. 1 

A greater surprise to me than Sao Luiz College was the 
really excellent convent school, Avhich it was my privilege 
to visit. It is one of the largest and finest buildings in 
the city and, like the college, it is well patronized. The 
sisters had begun their work here only a few years before 
our arrival, and it was a pleasure to note what success 
they had achieved in so short a time. 

1 Gf. "Viagem ao Redor do Brasil, " pp. 56, 81, et seq., by Joao Severiano 
da Fonseca. Rio de. Janeiro, 1881. 

456 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

Like the Franciscans and like so many religions whom 
I had found in all parts of South America, the sisters 
of Sao Luiz Caceres were from France, which they had 
been compelled to leave on account of the iniquitous Lois 
d' Associations. But, although exiled from the land of their 
birth and far away from those who were near and dear 
to them, they were happy in their work — "pour le bon 
Dieu," as they fervently expressed it — and had no com- 
plaint to make of the cruelty of the government which 
had forced them to live so far away from home and friends. 
Like the children of Don Bosco, the religious of Sao Luiz 
Caceres have the zeal of apostles and the courage of 
martyrs. 

The father superior of the college — still in the glow of 
youthful manhood — told me of a journey he had just made 
to the old and now almost abandoned city of Matto Grosso 
— the former capital of the state — in order to minister to 
the spiritual wants of the people living there and in the 
vicinity. The distance to be traversed — going and return- 
ing — was nearly five hundred miles. The road was little 
more than a picada — bridle-path — and passed, for the most 
part, through a wilderness. His only means of locomotion 
was an old steer. On this slow-going animal he had to 
carry everything he needed during his absence from home 
— including provisions while on the way. His only shelter, 
en route, was a chance tree by the wayside or the canopy 
of heaven. His bed was the bare earth or a few palm 
leaves. "I did not mind this," he said, "because I have 
served my time as a French soldier and I like living in 
the open. But when the rivers were swollen by the heavy 
rains and I was obliged to wait for them to subside, often 
for a week at a time, it was not so pleasant." 

"And how did you occupy yourself in the wilderness," 
I asked, "during these long delays?" "Ma foi," he re- 
plied, smiling, "there was nothing to be done except to sit 
on the river bank and look at my toes." 

457 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Several times lie told me how glad lie was that I had 
come to see him and his confreres. I did not know his 
reason for this repetition until he remarked: "Don't you 
know, mon pere, that you are the first clerical visitor I 
have had in three years 1 The last priest to visit me came 
from Bolivia, and he was obliged to make the entire jour- 
ney of nearly four hundred miles — one way, figurez-vous — 
on mule-back." 

I have not heard from the good fathers since I said 
good-by to them in Sao Luiz Caceres. But, if they are no 
longer engaged in the work of education and religion in 
the wilds of Matto Grosso, it is because they are now, like 
so many thousand other French priests, valiantly fighting 
for their country in the trenches of northern France. And, 
if the devoted sisters are yet living, they are, I am sure of 
it, still at their post in the outskirts of the Brazilian wil- 
derness, or are nursing their sick and wounded countrymen 
on the battlefields of their loved France — that France 
which, in spite of the injustice and cruelty of its mole-eyed 
legislators, they have never ceased to love with an abiding 
and an unmeasured love. 

If one wishes to learn the might and majesty of self- 
sacrifice, to study the spirit of purposeful self-immolation, 
of religious and patriotic exaltation, at its best, highest 
and holiest, translated into noble and inspiring deeds, let 
him become acquainted with the lives and achievements of 
the religious who have consecrated their youth and talent 
and ambition to the service of God and their neighbor 
in the jungles of the tropics, or in the desolate regions of 
Tierra del Fuego. 

Five leagues above Sao Luiz de Caceres we bade adieu 
to the Paraguay and entered its fascinating affluent, the 
Rio Sepotuba. The weeks we had spent on the Paraguay 
had been weeks of unfailing delight. Considering it, and 
not the Parana, as the main river of the great system to 
which it belongs — as the earlier writers were wont to do — 

458 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

we were now nearly two thousand miles from where its wa- 
ters mingle with those of the Atlantic. During this long 
course we had neither accidents nor delays. We had seen 
several steamers stranded on the changing sand-bars and 
mud-banks of the river, but, thanks to the ever-watchful 
care of our captains and pilots, we always managed to 
keep in the deepest part of the channel. Traveling, as we 
did, during the rainy season, we escaped the dangers and 
delays which are always inevitable during the dry season 
for, during the period of flood, the water is much higher 
than during the rest of the year. At Corumba and Cuyaba, 
for instance, the river frequently rises more than thirty 
feet, while at intervening points there is a corresponding 
elevation of the river's surface. 

The headwaters of the Paraguay had always possessed 
a particular interest for me ever after I had read the 
graphic descriptions of them by the eminent French ex- 
plorer and savant, Count de Castelnau, whose exhaustive 
"Expedition dans les Parties Centrales d'Amerique du 
Sud" proved as great a revelation of the wonders of Cen- 
tral South America as Humboldt's epochal "Voyage aux 
Regions Equinoctiales du Nouveau Continent" had been 
of the territory north of the Amazon. ' ' The source of the 
Paraguay," says Castelnau, "marks one of the most curi- 
ous points on the continent. For here," he tells us, "are 
found, but a few paces apart, the fountain-heads of two 
of the greatest rivers in the world — the Amazon and La 
Plata." * The owner of the property at this spot, the same 
writer informs us, made the water of one stream flow into 
the other with the sole object of irrigating his garden. He 
also declares that canoes have been transferred from 
the Cuyaba to the Arinos with a portage of only four 
leagues. 2 

In truth, the basin of the Amazon has been in communi- 

1 Tom. II, p. 357. 
8 Ibid., p. 358. 

459 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

cation with that of the Paraguay, by way of the Tapajos, 
for nearly two centuries. As early as 1746 the Portuguese 
sergeant-major, Joao de Souza Azevedo, with an expedi- 
tion consisting of six canoes and fifty-four men, made the 
journey from the Rio Jauru to Para, and returned to his 
point of departure by way of Madeira and the Guapore. 1 
Even four years before this time, Matto Grosso was put 
in communication with Para by the daring of the Portu- 
guese adventurer, Manoel Felix de Lima, who first showed 
the navigability of the Guapore, Mamore and Madeira. 2 
"This latter," according to the scholarly Brazilian writer, 
Joao Saveriano da Fonseca, "was the route followed by 
the captains-general in their voyages, and the route by 
which, for a long time, was transported almost all the com- 
merce of the province." 3 

Even today both these routes — by the Madeira and by 
the Tapajos — are still used. "When we were in Corumba, 
we saw a large canoe, carrying nearly a ton, which had 
come from the Amazon by way of the Tapajos and the 
Paraguay. 

As we took our last look at the Paraguay, on entering 
the Sepotuba, I felt a slight pang of regret that we had 
not adhered to our original plan of going to its headwaters, 
or those of the Cuyaba, and thence making our way to 
the Amazon by the Arinos and the Tapajos. But I found 
some compensation in the thought that, if we could not 
carry the Stars and Stripes up either of these waters in 
their upper reaches, they had been flown to the breeze 

1 ' ' Vias de Communicacao ' ' de Matto Grosso, p. 12 and 13, by Barao de 
Melga§o, Cuyaba, 1905. 

2 Unless we accept, as true, the statement of Fernandez in his ' ' Kelacion 
Historial de las Misiones de Indios Chiquitos, ' ' p. 69, Madrid, 1895, that some 
of the companions of the Conquistador, Nuflo de Chaves, ' ' embarcandose en una 
pequena embarcacion en el rio Mamore, entraon por la boca del rio Maraflon 
en el Oceano, y con no poca ventura, llegaron a Europa. ' ' 

3 Op. cit., Tom. I, p. 122. Eio de Janeiro, 1880. "Eram esses rios o 
caninho por onde iam e vinham os capitaes-generaes ; por onde durante muitos 
annos se fez quasi todo o commercio da capitania. " 

460 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

on both of these streams by a distinguished countryman 
of ours more than half a century before. This was Cap- 
tain Thomas Jefferson Page, United States Navy, who, 
under the orders of the United States Government, had 
explored not only the lower Paraguay and its tributaries 
in the famous Water Witch, but had also, in the Alpha, ex- 
plored the Sao Lourenco and the Cuyaba, and had ascended 
the part of the Paraguay which we were not to see, almost 
to its source, and had, besides, gone up the Sepotuba full 
seventy-five miles above its embouchure. 1 

The morning after leaving Sao Luiz de Caceres, we 
landed at a fazenda known as Porto do Campo. Here 
we had to leave the Nyoac, for the river had now become 
too shallow for a vessel of even her light draught. In her 
stead, our only means of transportation further upstream 
was a small gasoline launch and a barge somewhat larger. 
Even these two craft were not spacious enough to convey 
all of our party and equipment at the same time. For 
this reason two trips were necessary. Harper and Cherrie 
and some of the Brazilians preceded the rest of the expe- 
dition who went into camp until the launch and barge 
returned. We remained almost a week at Porto do Campo 
and, for the first time during our journey, we lived in our 
tents. As they were large, and thoroughly waterproof, we 
felt quite at home in them. For weeks, all of our party had 
been looking forward to this life in the open and we were 
delighted when our tents were pitched and ready for occu- 
pancy. All of us were lovers of wild nature and, after 
having been so long feted and pampered during our tour 

1 ' ' La Plata, the Argentine Confederation and Paraguay. ' ' New York, 
1859, the volume in which Commander Page gives an account of the work of 
the first American expedition up the Paraguay and its affluents is still one of 
the best and most interesting books in English which have yet been written on 
the part of South America of which it treats. 

Eeferring to Captain Page's ascent of the Sepotuba Sr. Fonseca, op. cit., 
Tom. I, p. 109, declares that this explorer "subiu esse affluente no pequeno 
vapor Brasileiro Alpha par mais de cento e vinte kilometros. " 

461 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

through South America, we felt a touch of that "nostalgia 
for the strange which," as Flaubert truthfully observes, 
"all born wanderers know." 

The time spent at Porto do Campo was most pleasant 
for all of us and an unusually profitable one for our hunt- 
ers and naturalists. Colonel Roosevelt was as happy as 
a schoolboy on a picnic, for he was here able to bag more 
big game. After the jaguar, the animal he was most eager 
to secure was the tapir — the anta of the Portuguese nd 
the gran bestia of the early Spaniards. He was interested 
in Tapirus Americanus not so much on account of its size 
as because of its being peculiar to South America and 
because, also, of its intimate relation to several strange 
species of the geologic past. Besides the tapir, he was 
fortunate in obtaining here several other mammals which 
specially appealed to him as a naturalist. Among these 
were bush deer and white-lipped peccaries. He had pre- 
viously added a capybara and an ant-eater to the ever- 
increasing collection of the expedition. 

After the Colonel had bagged the tapir and the pec- 
caries, I remarked to him that he had now secured just 
the animals we had talked about in the White House six 
years previously. "Yes," he said gleefully, "I have got- 
ten specimens of all the mammals I was most eager to 
have and am now perfectly satisfied, if I do not get a shot 
at another animal." I am sure, however, he would have 
been very glad to come across one of those fifty- or sixty- 
foot boas or anacondas about which people in all parts of 
South America like to talk, but which nobody seems ever 
to have seen. Although these mammoth reptiles were fre- 
quently spoken of by members of our expedition, the Colo- 
nel always manifested the greatest skepticism about their 
existence. 

We tarried at Porto do Campo from the seventh until 
the thirteenth of January. While Colonel Roosevelt and 
Rondon, Kermit and Fiala were out hunting, Miller, Sigg 

462 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

and some of the Brazilian naturalists were occupied in 
preserving and skinning the animals which were brought 
to camp. But Sigg was the factotum of the party. He 
could turn his hand to almost anything from a hypodermic 
needle to a motor-boat. He was the professional nurse 
of the expedition and was always at the service of those 
who needed his care. He surprised us all by running our 
motor-boat from Caceres to Porto do Campo without a 
g";ide-« during a pitch-dark night and in a heavy downpour. 
"Where there are so many side channels, tributary streams 
and bayous as there are along this stretch of the Sepotuba, 
it is a wonder he did not lose his way. A few clays after- 
ward he distinguished himself by a similar exploit. On 
this occasion, seme of our hunters had failed to return 
to camp until a late hour of the night. Thinking they 
might have lost their way and come out of the forest at 
some point up the river, Sigg, with a companion, took the 
motor-boat and started upstream in search of them. 
Neither the darkness of the night nor ignorance of the 
course of the tortuous and impetuous Sepotuba deterred 
him for an instant from rushing to the assistance of our 
belated sportsmen. Nor did the loss of sleep perceptibly 
affect him. After a stretch of a few hours in his ham- 
mock, he was as fresh as ever and ready to help Miller 
in skinning a tapir or to take Lieutenant Lyra on a busi- 
ness trip to Caceres and back. 

Although the distance, in a straight line, from Porto 
do Campo to Tapirapuhan is less than fifty miles, it re- 
quired three full days to make the trip. This was due 
not only to the numerous curves of the river, but also, and 
more especially, to its very strong current. In several 
places the inclination of the channel was so great that 
rapids were formed. In these, at times, our launch actu- 
ally stood still and it looked as if further progress were 
impossible. But by poling and pulling on the overhang- 
ing branches of trees, we were able to extricate ourselves 

463 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

from these threatening barriers and to continue our slow 
advance towards our destination. 

But no one objected to these apparent drawbacks. 
There was something romantic about our trip up this part 
of the river which, in spite of our cramped condition on 
our two small craft, everyone thoroughly enjoyed. On the 
Nyoac we had been able to go forward by night as well 
as by day. Now, for several reasons, it was considered 
advisable to travel only during the daytime. About an 
hour before sunset, our boats were moored near the river's 
bank, where we remained until the following morning. 
Colonel Roosevelt and I slept on the launch, where there 
was room for only two small cots, while Colonel Rondon 
and many of the other members of the expedition sought 
repose in their hammocks stretched between neighboring 
trees. Contrary to what most of us expected, we were not 
molested by mosquitoes or other insects that are sup- 
posed to foregather in myriads in every tropical forest 
and to make life unendurable for those who venture to 
spend the night there. "I would not have believed it," ex- 
claimed Colonel Roosevelt in surprise, "if I had not seen 
it myself." Neither was the temperature unpleasantly 
high. This, for several of our party, was a surprise which 
was quite as agreeable as was the absence of noxious 
insects. 

Personally, I shall always most fondly remember our 
journey up the Sepotuba for two things — the wonderful 
communities of troopials which we saw in several places 
and the extraordinary exhibition of palms which fringed 
both banks of the river. All along the Paraguay we had 
seen immense tracts of land covered with palm trees of 
many species, but nowhere did we find these "princes of 
the vegetable world, ' ' as Humboldt calls them, in such glo- 
rious exuberance and of such surpassing beauty. In this 
respect, the lands bordering the Sepotuba and the Para- 
guay are quite unlike those contiguous to the Amazon, 

464 




. 



Part of Our Camp at Porto do Campo. Author's Tent at the Left; 
Colonel Roosevelt's in the Center. 





( '<>.\l m unities of Troopial 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

the Orinoco and the Magdalena. For, along these last- 
named rivers, extensive palmares are so rare that certain 
naturalists, whose observations have been confined to the 
neighborhood of these great waterways, have not hesi- 
tated to declare that palms, unlike our pines and firs and 
redwoods, are rarely, if ever, associated in large numbers. 

As I contemplated the ever-increasing marvels of the 
palmares along the Sepotuba, I forgot that we were fol- 
lowing in the wake of such brave explorers as Azevedo and 
Page. I forgot that we were passing through the great 
Matta da Poaya, which is so rich in vanilla and which, 
early in the last century, supplied the world with a great 
part of its ipecacuanha. There were trees and bushes — 
covered with blue and red and yellow and scarlet flowers — 
which seemed draped with the most brilliant of Tunisian 
rugs. But all these things, which under ordinary circum- 
stances would have made a strong appeal to me, possessed 
then but secondary interest. 

The first community of troopials which I saw on the 
Cuyaba did not count more than a score of nests. Subse- 
quently I saw single trees on which there were sixty and 
seventy nests. But, the day before our arrival at Tapi- 
rapuhan, we saw a tree on which there were fully a hun- 
dred nests. I was able to count eighty-nine. But several 
of them coalesced so that they appeared to form but one, 
while others were so concealed by the dense mass of foliage 
that I could only approximate the total number. One of 
the largest communities of these singular birds, whose spe- 
cific name, according to Cherrie, is oro-pendula, was found 
on a stately palm tree in front of the large residence on 
the fazenda of Palmital. Never did I see a more beautiful 
picture of the bird-world than this. There were dozens of 
mother-birds continually carrying food to their delicate 
nestlings, while others were chirping, twittering, singing 
and hovering about their graceful, pendulous nests, as if 
loath to leave what was indeed a birds' paradise. 

465 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

The natives say that these birds always establish their 
communities in the vicinity of human habitations. So far 
as my own observation goes, this statement seems to be 
true. But of one thing I am quite sure. If some good 
jinnee were to offer to bring me from Brazilian birdland, 
what pleased me most while I was there, I should certainly 
ask him to fetch me the wonderful palm tree with the happy 
family of orioles which so charmed me on the emerald bank 
of the Sepotuba. 

During our three days' journey from Porto do Campo 
to Tapirapuhan, we passed between two magnificent colon- 
nades of palms — one on each bank of the river. We were 
now in the most beautiful natural shrine I had ever beheld, 
or ever hope to behold — the favored shrine of Dea 
Palmaris. There were palms of many species and of all 
sizes — from the humble but graceful ariry — Cocos lilipu- 
tiana — to the stately bacairuva — Acrocoru sclerocarpa. 1 
Of some, the foliage was as delicate as that of the drooping 
bamboo by their side ; of others, the gorgeous fronds were 
from forty to fifty feet in length and six to eight feet in 
width. In some cases the boles were as tall and as 
smoothly turned as the masts of a great merchantman, 
while in others there was little more than an indication of 
a visible stem. Some palms, like the burity, always grow 
near the water's edge, while others thrive best on the ele- 
vated ground, where the soil is less moist. Like other trees 
along the river, the palms were loaded with air-plants and 
other parasites. One morning, shortly after sunrise, I 
noticed, just under the crown of a majestic bacairuva, an 
exquisite cluster of orchids. Their color could be best 
described in the words of Dante, who was always so exact 
in his descriptions as, 

Men che di rose e phi que di viole 

1 This, according to Herr Hoehne, the botanist of our expedition, is the 
name of the large palm in question. 

466 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

— less (vivid) than that of roses, but more than that of 
violets. 

The number of species of palms along the Sepotuba im- 
pressed me even more than the number and beauty and 
exuberance of the individuals. Linnaeus was acquainted 
with only fifteen species, whereas there are in Brazil alone 
more than four hundred species 1 and nearly fifty genera. 
And, wonderful to relate, nearly two-thirds of these species 
were discovered and described by two men. One of these 
was the eminent Bavarian naturalist, Karl Friedrich von 
Martius, whose elaborate " Flora Brasiliensis" is one of 
the greatest botanical works in existence. But it was his 
monumental "Historia Naturalis Palmarum," in three 
splendidly illustrated folio volumes, that first directed the 
attention of the botanists of the world to the marvelous 
variety and loveliness of the palms of Brazil. 

For a long time it was thought that Von Martius had 
virtually exhausted the subject. But a few decades later, 
the illustrious Brazilian botanist, Barbosa Bodrigues, be- 
gan to make a special study of these attractive phanero- 
gams. His investigations led him to all parts of this 
extensive country. For thirty years he traversed the vast 
selva of the Amazon basin, the sertao of Matto Grosso, 
the lands drained by the Paraguay and its affluents, and 
with such success in discovering new species that he more 
than doubled the number which had been made known to 
science by Von Martius. His masterly ' l Sertum Palmarum 

1 The exact number of Brazilian species in 1898, according to Barbosa Rod- 
rigues, was four hundred and ten. Of these the illustrious botanist discovered 
and described no fewer than 134 species, as agains't the 128 species discovered 
and described by Von Martius. The total number of known species in the 
whole world was, at the date mentioned, estimated to be about 1,200. Kef er- 
ring to the prodigious number of Brazilian species, J. Barbosa Rodrigues re- 
marks, with justifiable pride, that these represent the labor of practically two 
men — podese diser que representao so traballio de dois homens. "Palnnu 
Mattogrossenes Novas val Minus Cognitse quas eollegit Descripsit et Iconibus 
Illustravit, " J. Barbosa Rodrigues, pp. XVIII and 89. Rio de Janeiro, 1898. 

467 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Brasiliensium" is second only to that of his illustrious 
Bavarian predecessor. 

No less remarkable than the great number of species of 
this interesting family of Flora are the countless uses to 
which palms are put by the children of the forest. For 
they supply the natives with materials for building their 
toldos and malocas — names of their rude habitations — and 
for making the furniture with which they are provided. 
From the leaves of the palm the Indian makes mats, bags, 
fans, hats, baskets and hammocks. From its fibers he 
makes ropes, twine, seines, fishing-lines and boAvstrings. 
From the wood he fashions his little dugout and his im- 
plements of husbandry and warfare: his hoe and plow; 
his pumps, water-tubes and musical instruments; the sar- 
cabana — the dread blow-gun through which he stealthily 
and noiselessly launches his deadly curare-tipped darts 
against his unsuspecting enemy. From the palm, also, he 
procures washing and toilet soaps; wax and oil for light; 
salt and vinegar for seasoning his food ; water for quench- 
ing his thirst; wine and brandy for his feasts; fruits and 
meal for his daily aliment, and efficacious remedies for 
many of the ills to which he is subject. No other vegetable 
family, declares Barbosa Rodrigues, is so useful to man, 
and, at the same time, free from all traces of poison. 1 

Some palms, like the tucum or the piassaba, are spe- 
cially valuable on account of their long and strong fibers, 
which are used for making brushes, brooms and numer- 
ous other articles. The cordage made from them is much 
more durable than that produced from hemp. The endo- 
carps of the fruits of others are used as a substitute for 
ivory in the manufacture of rings, trinkets and small bibe- 
lots. The large leaves of the obocu and jupaty are particu- 

1 ' ' Aucun produit des palmiers n 'est toxique ; tous sont bienf aisants. 
' ' Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, ou Eelation des Palmiers Nouveaux du 
Bresil, Decouvertes, Decrits et Dessines d'apres Nature." Tom. I, p. XXVI. 
Brussels, 1903. 

■ 468 




Parasite-Laden Trees. 




Palmares in Inundated Territory 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

larly useful for thatching houses, for they resist the burn- 
ing sun and the heavy downpours of the tropics for twenty 
years and more. 

But there are still other species of palm which supply 
so many of the wants of the natives that they are deserv- 
edly called as arvores da vida — the trees of life. Among 
these are the mority, the burity, and the carnauba. Each 
of these, like the coco-palm "by the Indian Sea, on the 
isles of balm," of which Whittier sings, is to the children 
of the tropical forests 

A gift divine, 
Wherein all uses of man combine, — • 
House and raiment and food and wine. 

How hard would not be the lot of the traveler in the 
equinoctial regions were it not for the ubiquitous palm! 
Its hidden reservoirs furnish a delicious beverage; its 
fruits and tender terminal leaves, wholesome and palatable 
food; its broad fronds can in a moment be converted into 
a mayary, under which one finds shelter from the heaviest 
rainstorm. The Prince of Neuwiecl, whose "Beitrage zur 
Naturgeschichte Brasiliens" gives him an honored place 
among the distinguished German naturalists who have con- 
tributed so much towards making known to the world the 
unrivaled flora and fauna of Brazil, declares with truth: 
"The family of palms is one of the most beautiful gifts 
which Providence has bestowed on the regions of the 
equator. ' ' 

It is not surprising, then, that palms — the representa- 
tives of a dynasty that extends back to the distant geo- 
logic past, of a dynasty which exhibits a peculiar cachet 
of distinction, of strength, of beauty, of utility — hold them- 
selves apart from the crowd that presses round about them. 
For this reason poets as well as naturalists unite in ac- 
claiming them as the kings and the queens of the forest, 

469 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and for this reason, too, they occupy so prominent a place 
in the legends of all peoples who are familiar with their 
matchless loveliness and their far-reaching utility. 

Plutarch tells us of a Babylonian hymn which recounts 
the three hundred and sixty benefits which palms confer 
on humanity. The author of this hymn probably knew lit- 
tle of any of this family, except the date-palm which is 
so highly valued in all parts of the Orient. How he would 
have multiplied the number of benefits accruing from these 
trees could he have been informed of the four hundred 
and more species of Brazil! 

In pre-Christian times the palm was regarded as a 
sacred tree — as the symbol of the sun, of strength, of 
riches, of triumph. Since the earliest ages of the Church, 
it has been symbolic of the martyr's crown, of the reward 
of the just, of spiritual victory, of a glorious immortal- 

ity. 

When the Holy Family, a venerable legend declares, 
were traversing the deserts of Egypt, during their flight 
from the fury of Herod, the Virgin Mother allayed her 
hunger by partaking of the fruit of the palm beneath 
whose shade she was reposing. The Infant Savior then 
blessed it and made it, thenceforth, the symbol of eternal 
life and declared, at the same time, that with palms He 
would make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 

As I contemplated with ever-increasing delight the 
graceful and stately palms of the Sepotuba, I recalled the 
exquisite ' ' Cangao do Exilio ' ' — Song of the Exile — -written 
by the Longfellow of Brazil, A. Goncalves Dias. Many 
translations of it have been made into various languages, 
but none of them reveals the exquisite lyric beauty and 
delicacy of the original. It is the Brazilian "Home, Sweet 
Home" — poignant saudades expressed in sweetest rhyth- 
mic melody. No one can visit "the home of birds 
and palms" without sympathizing with the homesick exile 
when he sings : 

470 



THE HOME OF BIRDS AND PALMS 

"Mine is the country where the palm trees rear 
Their stately heads towards the azure sky, 
And where, in accents soft and clear, 
The sabia sings her hymn of melody; 
Here, in my exile, say what warblers rare 
Can with the sabia 's notes their own compare? 

"Our skies are strewn with stars, our fields with flowers, 
Our woods resound with bird and insect life, 
Our life 's a dream of love in fairy bowers, 
Where Nature 's lavish gifts are ever rife ; 
Bright land of palms! where the sweet sabia sings, 
The exile's heart to thee still fondly clings." 

Nor can anyone read without emotion the closing strophe 
of the poet-exile's "Cancao do Exilio" wherein he voices 
the pathetic prayer that lie may be permitted to return to 
his native land and that he may once again hear the dulcet 
notes of the sabia 's song and contemplate, under the bright 
blue skies of his beloved Brazil, those noble palmeiras 
which had so long been his pride and joy. 

Nao permitta Deos que eu morra, 

Sem que eu volte par la; 

Sem que desfructe os primores 

Que nao encontro por ca; 

Sem qu' inda aviste as palmeiras 

Onde cante o sabia. 1 

But, like the author of "Home, Sweet Home," the 
singer of Minha terra tern palmeiras was never again to 
see his cherished birthplace, never again to hear the sweet- 
voiced sabia and never more to gaze on his beloved palms. 
He did, indeed, embark for the home of his youth, but the 
vessel on which, he took passage was wrecked before he 
reached the longed-for land of his heart's desire and the 
mortal remains of one of Brazil's most gifted poets found 
their final resting-place in the bottom of the deep Atlantic. 

1 The sabia, which reminds one of the nightingale, is the favorite song- 
bird of Brazil. 

471 



CHAPTER XX 
JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

Three days, almost to the hour, after leaving Porto 
do Campo we arrived at the head of navigation on the 
Sepotuba. This was at a small village called Tapirapuhan, 
which is one of the stations of the Brazilian Telegraphic 
Commission, as well as the headquarters of a large cattle 
ranch. All the inhabitants were at the landing on our 
arrival and the great square of the village was gayly deco- 
rated with bunting, Chinese lanterns, and flags of various 
countries, among which the Stars and Stripes occupied a 
conspicuous place. 

We were loath to leave the Anjo D'Aventura, the lit- 
tle gasoline launch on which we had spent three most de- 
lightful days. But we were also glad. For several weeks 
we had been traveling by what Pascal so aptly designates 
les chemins qui marchent and what the Spaniards call ca- 
minos andantes — flowing roads. For many parts of South 
America, especially the dense and swampy regions of 
Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, they are the only means of 
locomotion possible. Now, however, we had reached the 
Campos dos Parecis, the dry uplands between the Serras 
de Tapirapuhan and the Serra dos Parecis. And we were 
rapidly approaching the watershed between the great 
drainage basins of the Paraguay and the Amazon. Al- 
though the elevation of Tapirapuhan above sea level is but 
little more than eight hundred feet, the land as one pro- 
ceeds north continues to rise until at the divide, near Aldea 
Queimada, a point on our route, the elevation above the 
sea is almost half a mile. 

472 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

It was our good fortune to reach Tapirapuhan during 
the interval in the rainy season known as the veranico de 
Janeiro — the January summer. During this period, which 
lasts a fortnight or more, there is but little precipitation 
and several days may pass without a drop of rain. Our 
arrival at this juncture augured well for our journey in 
the jungle. For, with fair weather, our expedition over 
the Plan Alto between the headwaters of the Sepotuba and 
those of the Juruena promised little or no difficulty. We 
accordingly looked forward all aflame with anticipation 
and most eager to enter upon this lap of our journey with 
the minimum of delay. And, although we had enjoyed im- 
mensely every hour spent on the Paraguay and its af- 
fluents, we promised ourselves even greater pleasure dur- 
ing our overland expedition through the wilds of Central 
Matto Grosso. 

On our arrival at Tapirapuhan, on a bright Saturday, 
January the sixteenth, we expected to be able to move 
northwards in a day or two. But this was impossible. 
We did not, however, regret the delay. For, as we were 
all constantly engaged in congenial occupations, the time 
passed quickly and pleasantly. Colonel Roosevelt and I 
spent most of our time in reading and writing. Our natu- 
ralists were busy hunting mammals and birds and prepar- 
ing them for shipment to the Natural History Museum of 
New York, while the other members of the expedition had 
their hands full in getting our baggage, provisions and 
equipment ready for our long journey through the 
wilderness. 

One morning during our enforced delay here, I noticed 
a calf with an ugly bleeding wound on the shoulder. From 
several unpleasant experiences which I had had with blood- 
sucking bats during a previous journey in South America, 
I immediately recognized the cause of the wound. But one 
of my American associates, on having his attention called 
to the calf's gory shoulder, was very skeptical about the 

473 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

wound's being due to a vampire bat, until he was assured 
by several of the Brazilians that such was the case. He 
then proceeded at once to take a photograph of the still 
bleeding calf in order to be able to convince other skeptics 
that at least some of the stories told of South American 
vampires are founded on fact. 1 

The task of getting everything in readiness and under 
way proved to be much greater than had been anticipated. 
When Colonel Eoosevelt and I first planned our trip to 
the interior of South America, we intended to go unac- 
companied until we should reach the headwaters of the 
Tapajos, where we purposed to secure enough native pad- 
dlers'to man our canoes on our way down the river. But 
gradually, as has been stated, the membership of our ex- 
pedition increased until, on our arrival in Tapirapuhan, it 
numbered — counting the muleteers, cooks and other aids — 
approximately forty, while our saddle and pack-ani- 
mals totaled nearly two hundred. More than one-half 
of our pack-animals were oxen, while most of our saddle- 
animals were mules. We took but few horses with us, as 
the length of the journey and the inferior pasturage in 
many places had been found to be beyond their endur- 
ance. 

We had to take with us not only our tents, baggage 
and equipment, but all the provisions that would be re- 
quired during our entire trip, of several months ' duration, 
through the wilderness. For we could expect nothing 

1 No one who has traveled much in the interior of South America has es- 
caped the attacks of the blood-sucking bats. They were frequently a great 
nuisance to the early explorers. Cabeza de Vaca, when on the Upper Paraguay, 
"was bitten by one of these animals while asleep in a brigantine, one of his 
feet being uncovered. All night the blood kept on flowing till he awoke from 
feeling his leg cold, and, finding the bed soaked with blood, thought somebody 
had wounded him ; but those on board searched the place where he was wounded, 
and when they found what they knew, by experience, to be the bite of a bat, 
they laughed. The governor found that a slice of his toe had been bitten off. ' ' 
' ' Eelacion de los Nauf ragios y Commentaries de Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. ' ' 
Tom. I, p. 288, Madrid, 1906. 

474 




Starting from Tapirapuhan. 




The Author and Colonel Roosevelt at Utiarity. 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

en route except a little chance game, and even this might 
fail us when most needed. 

The loading of the oxen proved to be no easy matter. 
Many of them were half-wild steers and had, evidently, 
never felt a load on their backs before. They, therefore, 
kicked and bucked and ran madly hither and thither, until 
they had relieved themselves from their unaccustomed bur- 
den. This, with other unforeseen drawbacks, caused sev- 
eral days' delay in starting. On Monday we were told 
that we should surely be off the following day. But we 
were doomed to disappointment. Had we been in Bo- 
livia, I should have thought that we were retarded by the 
fatidic Tuesday, 

Dia martes 

Ni te cases 

Ni te embarques 

Ni de casa apartes — 

on which, accoiding to a popular saying, one should neither 
marry nor set out on a journey, nor leave one's home. But 
being in Tapirapuhan, we held the buck-jumping bullocks 
responsible for our protracted delay. 

It was after luncheon, Wednesday, January the twenty- 
first, when our motley cavalcade was finally under way. 
The weather was delightful and all our party were in high 
spirits. Colonel Roosevelt rode a large and powerful mule 
which had cost one and a half contos, nearly five hundred 
dollars, while I also had a similar hybrid mount which 
had been specially selected for me. It was then that I first 
fully appreciated the thoughtful kindness of a good friend 
in Buenos Aires who, just before we started up the Para- 
guay, had presented me with the best type of American 
stock-saddle, which proved to be as comfortable as a 
rocking-chair. He could not have chosen anything that 
would have contributed more to my comfort during our 
long ride through the jungle. 

475 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

Our course during the first day of our overland journey 
was almost directly northwards. We followed a rough, 
but almost level, cart-road, which passed through a lightly 
timbered country in which we saw quite a number of graz- 
ing cattle. Most of them were sleek and fat and seemed 
to have an abundance of good pasturage. The aspect of 
this region was not unlike that of certain parts of Mon- 
tana or of the Panhandle of Texas. We had been pre- 
ceded by a cart or two which carried a part of our impedi- 
menta, among which was one of our canoes. The provi- 
sions and tools, destined for use on the Duvida, had gone 
ahead to their destination two days previously by a shorter 
road than the one we had selected. This part of our expedi- 
tion was under the direction of Captain Amilcar de Magal- 
haes, who was not only an officer and a gentleman of the 
noblest type, but also an explorer of proved courage and 
ability. The Brazilian government could not have selected 
a better man to accompany us or one who was more com- 
petent and sympatico. We only regretted that he had 
to separate from us just as his admirable qualities of heart 
and mind had made him a general favorite. 

Shortly before sunset we arrived at El Salto — an 
aldeisinha of a few rude huts on the right bank of the Sepo- 
tuba. This little hamlet takes its name from the rapids of 
the river nearby, and is inhabited chiefly by employees 
of the Telegraphic Commission. As I crossed the river 
at this point, I could in fancy see the brave Portuguese 
explorer, Joao de Souza Azevedo, and his resolute com- 
panions in their rough canoes struggling up the turbulent 
Sepotuba on their way to the Amazon by way of the Soumi- 
douro and the Tapajos. This was nearly two centuries 
ago, but the region which they then traversed in their 
memorable expedition has witnessed but few changes and 
is still the same forest primeval which it was when Azavedo 
and his gallant band first lifted the veil of mystery which 
had so long enveloped it. 

476 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

Our second day's journey was through a dense forest 
composed of trees and shrubs of all sizes and of innu- 
merable species. The branches of the larger trees inter- 
laced overhead in such wise that at times we seemed to 
be passing through a dimly lighted vegetable tunnel. Most 
of the smaller plants and shrubs which packed the spaces 
between the forest giants belonged to the vast order of 
the Leguminoscd which constitutes the real basis of tropical 
vegetation. Everywhere there was an infinitude of lianas, 
the spectabilis, the procera, the excelsa, the gigantea, and 
countless others of equal interest and attraction. Some 
of these strange climbing and twining plants were as slen- 
der as fishing-lines; others were thick Brobdingnagian 
ropes, which were capable of holding a superdreadnaught 
at anchor in the heaviest sea. Some of them encircled the 
trunks of the trees like vegetable boas ; others leaped from 
branch to branch and formed a network of rarest beauty ; 
others still, dropping from the summits of the loftiest trees 
like the standing-rigging of a huge ship, took root in the 
soil and, later on, rose to the dignity of trees to support, 
in their turn, a world of parasites and aerophytes and 
flowers of exceeding delicacy and loveliness. On each side 
of the road were clumps of graceful bamboos and broad- 
leaved Heliconice with long, flaming red spikes, and low 
bushes bearing red and yellow and purple blossoms. 
These, with the numberless climbers, formed an impene- 
trable mass of verdure which seemed to interdict to the 
profane all access to the sanctuary of the mysterious genii 
of the forest. 

But one cannot pass under a canopy of tropical trees, 

"In branching beauty and in living green," 

without having one's attention attracted to the fierce and 
unintermittent struggle for existence which is everywhere 
so overwhelming. Nothing that we are familiar with in 

477 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

our northern forests can give us any idea of the relent- 
less and unceasing struggle for life that distinguishes the 
vegetable as well as the animal world of the great selva 
of Brazil. Here heat, and soil, and moisture, and exu- 
berance of vegetation all combine to intensify and per- 
petuate the struggle. As elsewhere, all plants must have 
light, but in the tropical forest, where vegetation is so 
compact, each plant, each bush, each tree is forever thrust- 
ing its neighbor aside and pushing itself towards that point 
in the overhanging canopy of verdure which is open to 
the vivifying rays of the sun. Here, of a truth, the race is 
to the swift and the battle to the strong. 

But even after the tree has outstripped its fellows in 
its race for light, its life is menaced by danger from some 
apparently harmless plant to which it has given aid and 
hospitality. Among these tree-killing plants — matapalos, 
the Spaniards call them — is the death-dealing wild fig. 
Botanists call it ficus dendroica, but the Germans more 
aptly designate it as Wurgerbaum — tree-strangler. For 
it as effectually strangles the tree around which it winds 
its resistless coils as did the two serpents throttle Laocoon, 
the Trojan priest of Apollo. The work of the matapalo 
is completed by myriads of termites which prey on the dead 
trunk and, in a very short time, leave but a little brown 
humus as the sole remains of the secular monarch of the 
forest. 

We spent the greater part of the day in traversing this 
interesting wood, and never grew tired of the floral won- 
ders that were ever before our eyes. We saw, however, 
but little of faunal life — only a few birds and no mammals. 
I had hoped to find at least a few monkeys, but in this 
I was disappointed. Doctor Cajazeira, our excellent physi- 
cian, was also looking for them, but, not seeing any, he 
declared "their absence must be due to the lack of fruits 
and nuts at this season of the year." 

After our exit from the virgin forest, we found our- 

478 




Breaking Camp. 




Five 0' Clock Tea in the Jungle. 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

selves in an open, sandy region in which were only a few 
scattered bushes and scrub trees. We were now entering 
the heart of the sertao — "a country without a house or 
trail, where trade has as yet introduced no vestige of com- 
fort ; where every encounter is an event ; where the traveler 
finds his way by means of the compass, lives by the spoil 
of his rifle or the contents of his saddlebags, and sleeps 
with his saddle for a pillow. The boundaries of the sertao 
change ; they recede with the passage of years. They must 
be sought far inland now; and the majority of Brazilians 
know no more of this country than the peasants of Beauce 
or Brie know of the mountains or the waste heath. But 
the engineers, prospectors and pioneers, who graze their 
half-domesticated beasts in the sertao, are fervently at- 
tached to the free life which they lead there. ' ' x 

It was rarely that we saw here a tree more than fifteen 
or twenty feet high, and certain areas were as treeless as 
the desert lands of New Mexico or Arizona. We were 
within the confines of the Campos dos Parecis which were 
traversed, in 1772, by Joao Leme do Prado and his fellow- 
adventurers when exploring the country between Cuyaba 
and Villa Bella in quest of gold. At times the deep, sandy 
roads were hard on our mounts and made rapid progress 
impossible. Fortunately, however, the sky was overcast 
and this, with a refreshing breeze, rendered traveling quite 
delightful. But during our first day in this arid land we 
did not find a drop of water for a stretch of twenty miles. 
This was a greater drawback to our animals than to our- 
selves, for we were always able to carry sufficient water 
for our needs in our canteens. 

The effect of this utter lack of water and of scant vege- 
tation was shown in the numerous skeletons of oxen and 
mules which littered both sides of the road. Besides these 
bleached skeletons, we saw also a number of boxes scattered 

1 "Brazil," p. 89, by Pierre Denis. London, 1911. 

479 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

here and there bearing the inscription "Roosevelt South 
American Expedition." These were some of our provision 
stores which certain of our refractory steers had left there 
a day or two before. What became of this food which we 
had so carefully selected in New York, and which we had 
looked after so solicitously for thousands of miles, it would 
be interesting to know. It was impossible for anyone to 
collect it and add it to our other stores which had been 
sent ahead, and impossible for our pack animals to carry 
it, for their burdens were already as great as they could 
bear. 

We were now supposed to be at the height of the rainy 
season and in a land infested by mosquitoes. But there 
were neither mosquitoes nor rain. More than this, the 
nights were so cool that it was necessary to sleep under a 
blanket. All this greatly surprised the American mem- 
bers of our party who had anticipated clouds of noxious 
insects, incessant downpours and intolerably hot weather, 
both by day and by night. Colonel Roosevelt, commenting 
on this unexpected condition of things, remarked, "It is 
perfectly astounding. ' ' 

The second day after entering the sertao, we reached 
the great divide which separates the waters of the Ama- 
zon from those of the Paraguay. We had left behind us 
the romantic region of La Plata and were now on the 
threshold of famed Amazonia. A gathering storm but 
added to the impressiveness of the sertao on this crest of 
the continent. Although the elevation above sea level at 
this point was, according to my aneroid, a fine compensated 
instrument, less than twenty-five hundred feet, we seemed 
to be at a much greater altitude. For some unaccountable 
reason, the impression produced on one at the time was 
like that which I had experienced years before on the roof 
of the world in the elevated plateau of northern Bolivia. 
Although the surface of the earth was slightly undulated, 
it had the appearance of being so absolutely level, with a 

480 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

horizon at an infinite distance, that one felt almost justi- 
fied in denying the earth's sphericity. And the undulations 
of the earth's surface seemed like tidal waves on the ocean, 
which had suddenly been arrested in their course and con- 
verted into solid rock by a fiat of Omnipotence. 

The sensation of immeasurable distance here produced 
by the limitless sertao was overpowering. There was little 
of beauty in the landscape. Tall tufts of green grass, 
scattered clumps of stunted trees, reddish dunes, which 
our geologist, Dr. Oliveira, declared were derived from 
disintegrated Triassic rocks which long ages ago bordered 
the northern shores of the great Pampean Sea — these were 
the chief objects visible in this vast wilderness. An occa- 
sional Pampa deer might be seen scampering across the 
half-desert plain, the note of a solitary bird was heard now 
and then, but otherwise all was silence and solitude. Not 
a human being was in sight, except the members of our 
expedition, and nowhere, outside of our bridle-path, was 
there the slightest evidence that intelligent beings had ever 
visited this lonely region. It was not difficult, therefore, 
for us to imagine that we were the first civilized men to 
tread this arid waste and to feel that we were actually ex- 
ploring an unknown land. 

But nothing would have been farther from the truth. 
The boundless territory which we were then traversing 
cannot, it is true, point to a storied past like that of the 
world-historic Plata or Peru, but it has, nevertheless, been 
the scene of many heroic deeds, and of stirring adventures 
and countless dreadful tragedies over which history would 
fain draw the veil of oblivion. 

To what extent the vast sertao, which extends from the 
Tocantins to the Madeira, was explored by the mission- 
aries of colonial times, it is now difficult to determine. But 
there is reason to believe that their activities in this part 
of South America were in keeping with their enterprise 
and Christian zeal in all other parts of the continent. We 

481 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

have seen how the Tapajos, the Jauru and the Mamore 
were explored at an early date by both Spaniards and Por- 
tuguese. The Jesuits had missions on the Arinos as early 
as 1668, while nearly two centuries before our modern ex- 
plorers had ventured into the wilderness drained by the 
Tocantins the sons of Loyola had opened up communica- 
tion between the Paraguay and Para by way of the 
Itiquira, a tributary of the Sao Lourenco, and the Paredao, 
an affluent of the Araguaya. And two hundred years before 
Prince Adalbert of Prussia, with the youthful Otto Bis- 
marck, afterward so famous as "The Iron Chancellor," 
explored the lower regions of the Xingu, and two and a 
half centuries before Karl von den Steinen made his memo- 
rable descent of this treacherous river, Padre Roque Hun- 
derpfundt and other missionaries had evangelized the In- 
dians dwelling on its picturesque banks. 

And so it was with the Madeira and its tributaries. 
When, in 1742, the Portuguese, Manuel Felix de Lima, 
made his celebrated voyage to Para by way of the Guapore, 
the Mamore and the Madeira, he found a whole line of 
missions and churches along these rivers in charge not 
only of Spanish, but also of German, Italian, Hungarian 
and Irish priests. 1 The same may also be said of the 
Javary, the Jurua and other tributaries of the Amazon. 
Everywhere there was the most extraordinary missionary 
activity; Franciscans, Capuchins, Jesuits and Carmelites 
were vying with one another in making known the Gospel 
of truth and love to the benighted children of the forest 
and bringing them within the pale of civilization. The 
missionaries who had their headquarters at San Antonio, 
on the Madeira, made periodic journeys up to the head- 
waters of the Rio Jamary, and there is every reason to 
believe that they made similar trips up the Gy-Parana, the 
Jaci-Parana and other affluents of the Madeira. 

All this seems remarkable, but it is fully warranted by 

1 See Southey 's < ' History of Brazil, ' ' Tom. Ill, Chap. XXXVII. 

482 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

the missionary annals of colonial times. Indeed, one can 
assert, without fear of error, that there is not, in the 
whole of South America, a single river navigable by canoe 
or any considerable stretch of land between rivers, which 
has not at some period or other witnessed the beneficent 
and self-sacrificing labors of the Conquistadores of the 
Cross. Southey, in writing of the achievements of the 
early missionaries, declares that "A chain of missions 
had now been established in all parts of this great con- 
tinent. Those of the Spaniards from Quito met those of 
the Portuguese from Para. The missions on the Orinoco 
communicated with those of the Negro and the Orellana. 
The intercourse between the Moxo and Madeira settle- 
ments was prevented by political considerations, not by 
distance or any natural impediments. The Moxo Missions 
communicated with the Chiquito, the Chiquito with the 
Eeductions in Paraguay, and from Paraguay the indefat- 
igable Jesuits sent their laborers into the Chaco, and 
among the tribes who possessed the wide plains to the west 
and south of Buenos Aires. Had they not been interrupted 
in their exemplary career by measures equally impolitic 
and iniquitous, it is possible that ere this they might have 
completed the conversion and civilization of all the native 
tribes ; and probable that they would have saved the Span- 
ish colonies from the immediate horrors and barbarizing 
consequences of a civil war. ' ' * 

Not only, therefore, was the region which we were then 
traversing well-known to the missionaries of long ago, 
but it was also thoroughly familiar to the sertanistas, those 
intrepid explorers and gold-seekers of Brazil's far west — 
those restless Paulistas whom Humboldt aptly designated 
as flibustiers de Vinterieur. 2 Then there were also the 
garimpeiros, or diamond hunters, and, above all, there 

^'History of Brazil," Vol. Ill, p. 372. London, 1819. 

2 Keferring to these proto-explorers of Matto Grosso, Fonseca declares 
A' elles deve a provincia o descubrimento de todos os seus sertoes, suas mon- 
tanhas e rios. Op. cit., Torn. I, p. 42. 

483 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

were countless bandeirantes — those terrible companies of 
adventurers who scoured the whole of Matto Grosso, not 
only in quest of gold and diamond mines but also in search 
of Indians whom they sold as slaves. Neither the arid 
desert, without resources, nor the difficulties of navigat- 
ing unknown rivers, nor dark and dismal forests inhab- 
ited by hostile savages, deterred them from their haz- 
ardous undertakings. So great was their thirst for gold, 
so insatiable their cupidity, that these reckless adventur- 
ers abandoned homes and wives and children and buried 
themselves in the forbidding wilderness, as if it were a 
paradise or a land flowing with milk and honey. They 
suffered disasters without number. Many lost their lives 
in treacherous rapids; others died from disease and star- 
vation or the covert attacks of the savages of the forest. 
Frequently the corpses of these ill-fated men were found 
scattered along the banks of the river, or lying in their 
hammocks, where they had breathed their last — the vic- 
tims of inanition or some dread tropical malady. 

But this did not prevent others from following in their 
footsteps. The lust of gold, whether obtained through the 
discovery of mines or traffic in Indian slaves, lured them 
to the remotest parts of the vast territory between the 
Tocantins and the Madeira and incited them to explore 
all its rivers and serras and deserts. As early as 1732, 
bandeirantes from Cuyaba, in search of gold, penetrated 
the sertoes of the Parecis Indians. Forty years subse- 
quently the captain-general, Luiz de Albuquerque, with a 
view of increasing the prosperity of Matto Grosso, sent 
out explorers to the headwaters of the Galera, Camarare 
and Jamary, on the great Parecis plateau, in order to dis- 
cover the famous lost gold mines of Urucumaeuan, of 
which tradition related such marvels, but all his efforts 
were fruitless and these rich auriferous deposits still re- 
main hidden in the wilderness. 1 

1 Cf . Fonseea in ' ' Viagem ao Eedor do Brazil. ' ' Tom. II, p. 80 et seq. 

484 





<SsiS8^j!««SSJ* 



. . .- ■ 




JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

The sphere of activity of the bandeirantes who, in 
Matto Grosso as well as in other parts of Brazil, trafficked 
in Indian slaves seems incredible. The leaders of these 
ruthless men of death were the Mamelukes of Sao Paulo, 
who, according to Fernandes, were composed not only of 
Paulistas, but also of the offscourings of all nations — 
la hez de todas naciones. Among them were not only Por- 
tuguese, but also Italians, Dutch and Spaniards, who, be- 
sides being refugees from justice, recognized no law, either 
human or divine. They extended their brutal raids not 
only to the missions of the Moxos and Chiquitos in Upper 
Peru, but they also carried them on through the length 
and the breadth of Matto Grosso, enslaving and murder- 
ing the hapless Indians wherever they found them. These 
atrocities continued without interruption for a hundred and 
thirty years. During this period these barbarous Mame- 
lukes reduced to slavery no fewer than two million na- 
tives, depopulated Spanish cities and laid waste the lands 
of the Indians from Sao Paulo to the Maranon — a distance 
of more than a thousand leagues. 1 

The atrocities of these soulless monsters were unpar- 
alleled. For here, as in other parts of Brazil, "with 
sword, firearms and bloodhounds, the Indians, their women, 
and notably their children, were hunted down like wild 
beasts. The better to train the bloodhounds for their work 
when hunting for the Mucurys, they were fed on Indians 
assassinated for the purpose." 2 

It is sad to relate that Matto Grosso has, even within 
recent years, been the scene of similar atrocities. The 
very name, Aldea Queimada — burnt village — of the place 

1 ' ' Libres de toda ley . . . han proseguido por espacio de ciento treinta 
afios en sus infames latroeinios, que fuera de dos millones de almas que se 
sabe han destruido o reducido a miserable esclavitud, han hecho despoplar al- 
gunas ciudades de espafioles y mas de mil leguas en tierra hacia el Maraiion. ' ' 
"Relacion Historial de las Misiones de Indios Chiquitos," p. 74. Madrid, 1895. 

2 Cf . ' ' Aborigines of South America, ' ' p. 73, by Col. G. E. Church, London, 
1912. See also "Bevista do Institute Historico e Geographico Brasileiro," 
Tom. XXI, p. 193, in which occurs this blood-curdling statement; 

485 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

we stopped at the night before crossing the divide be- 
tween the Paraguayan and Amazonian basins, is a melan- 
choly reminder that such fiendish outrages — and these, too, 
at the hands of one who bears the name of a distinguished 
Brazilian family — are still possible. 1 

Our information respecting the routes followed and the 
rivers navigated by the missionaries and bandeirantes is, 
unfortunately, much more limited than we could desire. 
The gold and slave hunters did not have chroniclers of 
their expeditions like Padre Carvajal, who has given us 
such a graphic account of Orellana's exploration of the 
Amazon, or like Padre Juan de Castellano, who has fur- 
nished us with so vivid pictures of the expedition of Gon- 
salo Ximenes de Quesada in quest of El Dorado, or like 
Bachiller Francisco Vasquez, to whom we are indebted for 
the illuminating "Belacion de Todo lo que Sucedio en la 
Jornada de Omagua y Dorado Hecha por el Gobernador de 
Orsua," which tells us of that most tragic of expeditions 
under the leadership of the tyrant, Lope de Aguirre. 

In the case of the gold and the slave hunters, this ab- 

"Os traficafites davao caza aos indigenes como a animaes ferozes. Diz-se 
mesmo, que para adestrar os caens nesta ca^ada, dava-se-lhes a comer came 
dos selvagens assassinados, e que foi em represalia destes horrorosos attenta- 
dos, que os selvagens se derao a anthropophagia, devorando as victimas que 
cahiao nas maos. " Is it any wonder that these infuriated Indians should, in 
retaliation of such frightful acts of savagery, have devoured their enemies 
whenever captured? 

1 According to the English explorer, Major P. H. Fawcett, like deeds of 
savagery have characterized, even in our own day, the rubber gatherers in 
eastern Boliva. "The Madidi and its tributaries," he writes, "harbour only 
five small tribes of not a dozen souls in each, a terrible indictment against 
the rubber industry, chiefly responsible for their disappearance. For these 
people were once very numerous; Padre Armentia, the late Bishop of La Paz, 
himself remembering a population of some fifty thousand between Ixiamas 
and Covendo, whilst every altura or piece of land above the inundation-level 
in the Beni province and Majos is thick with ancient and broken pottery." 
Bolivian Exploration, 1913-1914, in the Geographical Journal, London, March, 
1915. 

The reader will recall the horror of the civilized world when informed, 
less than a decade ago, of the frightful cruelties inflicted by rubber collectors 
on the helpless Indians of the Putumayo region. 

486 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

sence of information respecting their expeditions is easily 
explained. The men composing them were, almost with- 
out exception, rude and ignorant adventurers who had not 
the ability, and presumably not the desire, to pen narra- 
tives of their raids and adventures. In this respect they 
were quite unlike that large number of Conquistadores of 
whom it could truthfully be said: "The lance had not 
blunted the pen." 

Numa m&o a penna e n'outra a lanca. 

A striking instance of this ability to handle pen and lance 
equally well is seen in Cieza de Leon, whose "Chronicon 
del Peru" is not only one of the most precious records 
of the conquest, but also one of the most instructive travel- 
books ever written on the land of the Incas. 

With the missionaries, however, the case is different. 
There is every reason to believe that they were as careful 
to keep records of their labors in the part of Matto Grosso 
with which we are now occupied as were their associates 
in other parts of the continent. But when we remember 
the vandalic destruction of books and manuscripts at the 
time of the suppression of the Jesuits and recall how the 
tyrant Lopez cut up the books in the public library of 
Asuncion to make rocket and squib cases, we can readily 
understand why there should still be great lacunce in the 
history of missionary exploration in certain parts of South 
America. Count Castelnau also tells of another cause 
of destruction of precious documents. Wishing, while in 
Villa Bella, to consult the records bearing on the explora- 
tion and evangelization of Matto Grosso, which, he was 
informed, were still preserved in the archives of the old 
palace of the captain-general, he found, to his dismay, that 
rats and termites had completely destroyed them. 1 

1 Que ne fut mon chagrin de voir que les rats et les termites avaient en- 
tierement detruit tous les papiers et que ces dossiers tombaient en poussiere des 

487 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

But, notwithstanding the loss of so many precious docu- 
ments, the serious researches which are now being con- 
ducted by the historical and geographical societies of Spain 
and of various South American republics, and the revela- 
tions that have recently been made by the discovery and 
publication of such works as "Viajes de Fray Francisco 
Menendes" and "Relacions Geograficas de Indias," pub- 
lished by the Ministerio de Fomento, of Peru, may eventu- 
ally bring to light other documents of equal importance in 
their bearing on the early exploration of Matto Grosso and. 
adjoining regions. And then — who knows? — it may be 
demonstrated, as in so many other cases connected with 
South American history and geography, that the whole 
of the Brazilian wilderness traversed by our expedition 
was fully described by missionaries of colonial times and 
that its serras x and rivers — including the Duvida — were 
"put on the map" nearly two centuries ago. Equally sur- 
prising disclosures have been made during recent years 
regarding other parts of the continent, and, until the 
archives of Europe and America have been thoroughly ex- 
amined, he would be a rash man who would affirm that 
Matto Grosso has been the only extended region of South 
America which the missionaries, who went everywhere, 
failed to map and describe. 

The night after crossing the divide we camped on the 
bank of the Rio Perdiz — a distant tributary of the Tapajos 
— near the pear-shaped pool which constitutes its fountain- 

qu' on j touchait. J'y trouvai plusieurs fragments de travaux geographiques 
mais qui, pour la plupart, ne pouvaient plus etre d'aueune utilite. " Op. cit. 
Tom. Ill, p. 67. Fonseca, op. cit., Tom., I, p. 43, says of the numerous and 
precious works of the Bahian botanist, Dr. Alexandre Eodrigues, called the 
Humboldt of Brazil, that they were completely dispersed, and many of them, 
perhaps, lost — completamente dispersos, e muitos, talvez, perdidos. 

1 The word serra in Brazil, like montaiia, in Spanish America, signifies forest 
rather than mountain. Incautious cartographers, misunderstanding the mean- 
ing of these words as used in South America, have frequently placed on their 
maps mountain ranges where only forested lowlands are found. 

488 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

head. Here, for the first time since we left Tapirapuhan, 
we found ourselves without shelter until the arrival of our 
pack-train, which we had left far in the rear. As the rain- 
storm, which had broken upon us early in the afternoon, 
had not yet entirely subsided, we had to stand in the steady 
downpour in the open plain until the arrival of our tents. 
It was then that I fully appreciated the waterproof poncho 
which I had gotten the day before I had left Buenos Aires. 
Next to my saddle, my poncho gave me more satisfaction 
and comfort than any other article of my equipment. 

It was quite late when our pack-animals arrived, and 
later still before we could get anything to eat. To start 
a fire with wet wood and cook for our large party was not 
an easy matter. But, although we had not had a bite to 
eat for fifteen hours, everyone was in good humor and pa- 
tiently waited until our frugal meal was served on the 
bullock hides which were spread on the damp ground. 
When, however, it ceased raining, the sky cleared and the 
stars shone with that brilliancy so peculiar to the tropics 
after a heavy rain. This was a great relief to our drenched 
and famished party, and when all took their places about 
the primitive table the spirit of camaraderie, which had al- 
ways been quite remarkable, seemed to be stronger than 
ever. As all of our party were either world-travelers, ex- 
plorers or men of science, they had very many interests 
in common. Subjects of discourse, therefore, in which all 
were interested were never lacking. This particular night, 
however, the conversation turned on travel and adventure 
— the Brazilians telling of their hair-breadth escape from 
savages and starvation in the wilderness of Matto Grosso, 
the Americans recounting their experiences in equatorial 
Africa or in the polar north. Barely, during our entire 
journey, did the hours pass more rapidly or pleasantly 
than during this memorable night, and, had it not been 
for the thought that we had to spend the following day 
in the saddle, I think many would have been disposed to 

489 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

continue their exchange of reminiscences until the small 
hours of the morning. 

The following evening we camped at the source of the 
Rio Mandioca, whose waters, like those of the Perdiz, 
eventually find their way to the Amazon by way of the 
Juruena and the Tapajos. Shortly after our arrival there, 
we were joined by our three auto-vans, which had come by 
a different route from the one which we had followed. 
Learning that they would reach the aldeia on the Rio 
Sacre, for which we were bound, two or three days sooner 
than was possible by our slow-going mules, and wishing 
to spend as much time as possible among the Indians at 
that point and at Utiarity, I decided to make this part of 
our journey — about a hundred miles — by these motor- 
trucks. Cherrie and Miller, desiring to have more leisure 
for making collections than it was possible to obtain while 
traveling by mule, no sooner heard of my purpose than 
they decided to join me. Sigg, also, formed part of this 
advance contingent. 

Our course the two succeeding days was through a 
chapada — a scrub-covered plain — which differed but little 
from that which we had already traversed. Our chief 
chauffeur was a clever and entertaining young French- 
man, who had served his time as a mechanician in the 
French navy. Thanks to his skill and intelligence in the 
management of our machines, we succeeded, in spite of 
many ugly stretches of road, in covering as much ground 
in two hours as our saddle-animals were able to traverse 
in a whole day. 

Our three motor-cars were made in Paris by a Swiss 
manufacturer by the name of Sauer. They were strong 
and serviceable machines, and, although each carried two 
'tons of freight, they frequently made a speed of twenty- 
five miles an hour. Sigg was delighted to find cars in 
this part of the world manufactured by one of his coun- 
trymen, but was surprised that none of them was of Amer- 

490 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

ican make. Turning to one of onr Brazilian associates, he 
inquired, "Wiry don't you use here some of our American 
cars?" "For the simple reason," came the reply, "that 
we do not know anything about them. Americans seem 
to be slow about introducing their motor-cars into our 
country. In this respect they are quite unlike the Ger- 
mans, who have their agents everywhere. It is for this 
reason that you find German automobiles and German 
goods of all kinds wherever you go." 

We saw little of interest during our two days' motor 
trip through the chapada. Birds and mammals were re- 
markably few in number. We saw an occasional deer, a 
number of curassows, and a few interesting cursorial birds 
which sought cover as soon as we came near them. During 
our entire journey in the wilderness I came across but 
two snakes, and these were small and non-venomous. And 
never once did any one of our party have occasion to use 
the anti-venom serums with which Dr. Vital Brazil had so 
generously provided us on the occasion of our visit to the 
Institute* Serumtherapico, at Sao Paulo, of which he is the 
distinguished director. The fact is that one who is well 
shod runs but little risk from venomous serpents in the 
tropics. It is the barefooted native who is the usual 
victim. 

A plant frequently seen along the road, and one which 
was' a sweet reminder of home, was a lovely species of 
morning-glory. Its colorization was wonderfully vivid and 
harmonized perfectly with that of the emerald foliage 
of countless acaulescent palms which were in striking con- 
trast with the vigorless-looking scrubs by which they were 
surrounded. 

But the masters of this region, as of so many other 
parts of tropical America, are ants and termites. They 
abound everywhere and the extent of their depredations 
is at times almost beyond belief. They destroy houses 
and furniture, and instances are recorded of whole vil- 

491 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

lages being laid waste by their pernicious operations. 
Like ants, termites live in communities each, of which is 
called a termarium. These termaria are constructed of 
earth and are of all sizes and forms. Many of those we 
saw were higher than a tall man and often had the appear- 
ance of large landmarks or milestones. Some of them had 
a castellated structure and were furnished with turrets and 
battlements. Usually they stand alone, but now and then 
they are built against stumps or trees. At times they are 
widely separated from one another, but frequently one may 
count many score of them in a single acre. Besides those 
that build their homes on the ground, there are others which 
construct their habitations on the trunks and branches of 
trees. These, like those on the ground, are made of earth 
and are as hard and durable as if built of adobe. The 
forms of these aerial termaria are quite as various and 
remarkable as those on the earth's surface. Not infre- 
quently they resemble quadrupeds clasping the tree trunk 
or crouching on a branch. More than once, when gazing 
at these singular objects at a distance, I had to use my 
field-glass to assure myself that I was not looking at a 
sloth or similar arboreal animal. The termaria built on 
trees are connected with the ground by covered passages 
which are likewise fashioned out of earth. 

The natives declare that the termites work continu- 
ously, day and night. To test this statement I removed 
a part of one of these passage-ways just at nightfall. The 
following morning — and before sunrise — the breach was 
completely repaired and, considering the extent of the part 
removed, the industrious termites must have labored all 
night to replace it. As all these insects but the kings and 
queens are blind, day and night are the same to them. But 
whether they do actually work without intermission, I was 
not able to verify to my satisfaction. It would be inter- 
esting to know how much truth there is in the prevailing 
opinion of the natives regarding the matter. 

492 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

The second night after leaving our companions at Man- 
dioca, we camped on the right bank of the Rio Sacre. Here 
we left our motor-cars, because the condition of the ground 
made it impossible for them to go further. 

Early the following morning, after we had taken our 
coffee, we saw a number of men coming towards us from 
the tolderia — group of palm-thatched huts — on the oppo- 
site side of the river. They proved to be the cacique of 
Utiarity, accompanied by the employees of the Telegraphic 
Commission, who had come to transport our baggage to 
his tolderia, which was some leagues distant, where we 
were to await the arrival of the other members of the 
expedition whom we had left behind. 

On reaching the aldeia on the left bank of the Sacre we 
found quite a number of Indians who, like ourselves, were 
on their way to Utiarity. But an unexpected surprise for 
us, on crossing the river, was the magnificent waterfall 
which is but a few rods from the village. We had heard 
much of it en route, but we never dreamed of finding such 
an imposing sight as Salto Bello — Beautiful Fall — proved 
to be in reality. 

It was indeed a beautiful waterfall from whatever point 
we viewed it. According to the measurements of our ac- 
complished engineer, Lieutenant Lyra, Salto Bello is one 
hundred and twenty-nine feet high and three hundred and 
seventy-eight wide. In its perfect regularity, exquisite set- 
ting, the deep gorge, carved out of bright brown and red 
sandstone, into which it plunges, the wealth of vegetation 
above and below it, it is scarcely inferior to the lower fall 
of the Yellowstone — the most superb cataract, to my think- 
ing, of which our country can boast. 

After partaking, near the falls, of a delicious luncheon, 
made up chiefly of the famous Brazilian dish, canja — which 
is composed of boiled rice and chicken — we started on 
horseback for Utiarity, which is both a supply station of 
the Telegraphic Commission and an Indian village. On our 

493 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

arrival at this place, early in the afternoon, we were cor- 
dially received by all the inhabitants, both whites and In- 
dians. After the usual exchange of courtesies, we were 
escorted to the chief building of the Telegraphic Commis- 
sion, where we were made to feel quite at home during 
our sojourn in this remote part of the Brazilian hinterland. 

Utiarity is, in reality, composed of two sections — that 
occupied by the employees of the Telegraphic Commission 
and that reserved for the Indians. At this place we again, 
for the first time in nearly a month, got in touch with the 
outside world by means of the telegraph. The line which, 
when completed, is to connect Cuyaba with the western 
frontier of the Eepublic, passes through Utiarity. The 
operator is a young Brazilian who, with his wife, seems to 
be quite contented with his lot so far away from civiliza- 
tion. When not engaged in office work, he spends his time 
in teaching three or four bright Indian boys to read and 
write Portuguese. His wife had a class of six intelligent 
iDdian girls whom she instructed in Portuguese and nee- 
dlework. Both boys and girls seemed very eager to learn 
and were very much attached to their teachers, who, on 
their part, exhibited a deep interest in their pupils. 

One of the first places we visited, after our arrival in 
Utiarity, was the great waterfall of the Papagaio Eiver, 
which is in the immediate vicinity. We were agreeably 
surprised to find two such large rivers as the Sacre and 
the Papagaio so near together, as we had seen nothing but 
small streams since leaving the Sepotuba, but we were 
much more surprised to find two such great cataracts 
within only a few miles of each other. 

The falls of Utiarity are named after the sacred falcon 
of the Parecis Indians who inhabit these parts. Although 
they do not possess the width and the regularity of outline 
of Salto Bello, they are twice as high and far more im- 
posing. According to Lieutenant Lyra's measurements, 
Utiarity Falls are two hundred and sixty feet high — a hun- 

494 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

dred feet higher than Niagara — and two hundred and 
ninety-two feet wide. They bear some resemblance to 
the lower Shoshone Falls. But, although not so wide as 
the great falls of the Snake Biver, they are fully seventy 
feet higher. Besides this, their setting is incomparably 
more beautiful. Bordering and beneath the Shoshone 
Falls, there is little but austere and boldly modeled basalt. 
But everywhere about the Falls of the Sacred Falcon the 
banks, up to the water's edge, are clothed with plants and 
trees which are ever green and whose trembling, spray- 
covered foliage glitters under the tropical sun like brooches 
of diamonds and emeralds. 

A short distance above the falls the moving mass of 
water is like lambent crystal. But when it approaches 
within a few hundred feet of the precipice, from which 
it leaps into the abyss, it is broken into rapids like those 
above the falls of Niagara. The cliff, however, over which 
the water plunges, unlike that of Niagara, is, with the ex- 
ception of a projecting shelf on the left bank, almost a 
straight line. On the right bank there are two or three 
narrow cascades which are separated from the main fall 
by lovely wooded islets. These, as well as the cataract 
from the projecting ledge on the left bank, give the falls 
of Utiarity a beauty and a majesty that are unsurpassed. 

I never tired of contemplating this wonderful scene. 
When I first visited it, there had been no rain for several 
days. It was near the hour of sunset and the vast cur- 
rent, rushing forward with irresistible power and velocity, 
had the delicate tint of purest aquamarine. But it was 
after a heavy and long-continued rainstorm that, under 
the rays of the morning sun, the falls were seen at their 
best. The volume of water was then greatly augmented 
and the turbulence and splendor of its irresistible mass were 
proportionately intensified. In the rapids above the falls 
the giant element dashed with delirious bound against 
rocks and islets and covered the shrubs and trees along 

495 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

its course with glittering foam and spray. From the abyss 
below came the roar of incessant, slightly modulated thun- 
der which kept rock and earth in continuous vibration. In 
the shattered crystal masses of the deep and narrow gorge 
which hemmed in the river below the cataract; in the lin- 
gering eddies, in the translucent rush near the banks, in 
the sh imm ering spray, in the wreaths of ascending mist, 
there was a play of color, from light chrysoprase to deep 
amethyst, that was a continual delight to the eye and a 
stimulus to the imagination. Surmounting the flashing 
mass of foam in the abysmal depths, and giving life and 
color to the opalescent vapor that ever ascended heaven- 
ward from the seething torrent below, was an exquisite 
iris, alternately fading and flushing in the surging clouds 
and the shivered sunbeams. It was indeed a gorgeous spec- 
tacle and, accompanied by the deep, resonant diapason of 
the rushing waters, its effect on the mind was like that of 
a tumultuous lyric or a Wagnerian symphony. 

It always required an effort for me to tear myself away 
from this magnificent exhibition of Nature's power and 
beauty. But there was something in Utiarity that appealed 
to me more strongly than the operation of natural forces, 
however impressive or grandiose. This was the Indians, 
especially the Indian children. It had been my privilege 
and pleasure to study copper-colored denizens of the for- 
est and the plains from Alaska to Patagonia, and the more 
I saw of them, the stronger grew my interest in them. 
When occasion offered, I always made it a point to visit 
them in their wigwams and toldos, and I always found 
them sympathetic and appreciative of any kindness shown 
them. The Parecis Indians, who formerly were much more 
numerous than now, were no exceptions in this respect. 
They were kind, gentle and always gave me a cordial wel- 
come to their humble homes, always placed the best ham- 
mock at my disposition and were ever ready to share 
with me their frugal fare. 

496 



. ■ 







Parecis Musicians. 




.^Zte 



A Parecis Woman as Burden- 
bearer. 




A Game of Headball. 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

In the Indian quarter of Utiarity there were twelve 
palm-thatched toldos, but all of them were large enough 
to accommodate several families. At the time of our visit, 
the number of Indians present was larger than usual. 
They had been notified in advance of our arrival, and has- 
tened to this point to see the strangers and to receive 
the presents which they had reason to believe would be 
waiting for them. Nor were they disappointed. For both 
Colonel Rondon and I were well supplied with just such 
things as we knew they would like. He had, among other 
things, articles of clothing for the men and women. I had 
fishhooks and jackknives for the boys, and thread, needles 
and colored beads for the girls. They were all delighted 
with their gifts, and young and old fairly danced with joy. 
But the presents which afforded the women the most ex- 
quisite pleasure were certain Parisian perfumes, of which 
each received a bottle and which they prized fully as much 
as any perfume-loving dame of the gay French capital. 

We were all intensely interested in a peculiar game 
of ball played by the Parecis Indians. So far as I am 
aware, it is played by no other tribe in South America or 
elsewhere. The ball used is of hollow rubber and is some- 
what smaller than our football. But it is played with 
the head and not with the foot. There are usually ten 
or twelve players on each side, but no fixed number is 
prescribed. The distance to which a good player can butt 
the ball is surprising. But more wonderful still is the 
fact that, in throwing themselves flat on the ground, as 
they frequently do in order to butt the ball, the players do 
not break their noses or utterly disfigure their faces. They 
never seem to tire of the game, and both players and spec- 
tators, to judge by their shouts and applause, seem to get 
as much pleasure out of it as do our American football 
and baseball enthusiasts out of our national games when 
played by professionals. 

The chief sustenance of these Indians, as of most other 

497 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

tribes in the tropics, is maize and manioc. These two arti- 
cles of food are produced on a plantation a short distance 
from the village. Thither, every morning, women and 
girls, with baskets on their backs, may be seen wending 
their way in pursuit of the day's subsistence. This planta- 
tion is the common property of the whole village and there 
seems always to be an abundance for everyone. 

I found it strange that, during our sojourn in Utiarity, 
there was not a trace of game or fish in any of the toldos, 
and I visited all of them every day, and some of them 
even more frequently. Like many other South American 
tribes, the Parecis seem to be satisfied with maize and 
manioc. Often, indeed, they live on manioc alone, as cer- 
tain Oriental peoples subsist on rice. When one considers 
the care required in the preparation of the bitter manioc — 
manihot utilissima — the most useful variety — one cannot 
but subscribe to Humboldt's opinion that "a people that 
has learnt to cultivate manioc has taken one step in ad- 
vance towards civilization." 

I have always been impressed by the great love which 
the Indian mothers have for their children. Never have 
I seen them treat their little ones with harshness, and 
rarely have I seen mother and child separated from each 
other for any length of time. Where one is found there 
also is the other. 

While going the rounds of the toldos of Utiarity, I 
found a mother sitting by her little daughter who was 
confined to her hammock by an attack of fever. I imme- 
diately called Sigg to look after the little sufferer. He 
prescribed for her and we both thenceforth called to see 
her several times a day. I never saw more grateful crea- 
tures than were mother and child. Nor did I ever see a 
more devoted or more solicitous mother. She never left 
the side of the little patient's hammock, except when im- 
peratively necessary. Every time we called she was sit- 
ting at the same spot and seemed as immovable as a statue. 

498 



JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE' 

As the medicine began to have its effect, and the child 
commenced to rally, the gratitude of both mother and 
daughter was as touching as it was unaffected. 

The Tupi word for child seems to express perfectly 
the intimate relation between the Indian mother and her 
infant offspring. This word is pitanga, which literally 
translated means soul-sucker. It is so named because, 
from the Tupi viewpoint, the child absorbs a part of the 
mother's very soul. 

Sigg's success with his first patient brought him many 
more. He was saluted by everyone as "Doctor," and he 
soon had all kinds of cases on hand, dental and surgical 
included. 

One day, as I was writing in my room, I heard loud, 
agonizing groans in the adjoining apartment. Desiring to 
learn their cause, I found Sigg extracting an ulcerated 
tooth from the jaw of one of our muleteers. But it was 
not the patient who was groaning, for he was perfectly 
quiet. It was the village cacique who was watching the 
operation. It may be remarked that the only appliance 
available for this operation was a pair of ordinary flat- 
nose pliers. But so skillfully did the volunteer dentist 
do his work that the patient experienced immediate relief 
and a few hours afterwards was entirely free from pain. 

Among Sigg's other patients were two sufferers from 
beri-beri. One of them was apparently a hopeless case, 
but, thanks to the skill and unremitting care of our clever 
Swiss factotum, the victim of one of the most terrible 
scourges of the tropics was soon on the way to recovery. 
But not only as physician and dentist had the "Doctor" 
to officiate; he must play surgeon also when the afflicted 
sought his aid. He had several surgical cases, among 
which was that of a child who had had a finger badly 
crushed. Gangrene was threatening and immediate am- 
putation was imperative. The operator had the necessary 
articles for dressing a wound, but the only instrument 

499 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

available for removing the contused digit was a common 
penknife. But after carefully sterilizing its blade, he pro- 
ceeded with the operation, and so successful was he that 
the wound quickly healed by first intention. It was well 
for the patients in question that Sigg was in a region 
where he was free to practice without a license. But even 
as a surgeon he was, according to Fonseca, 1 incomparably 
better equipped than were the military surgeons of Matto 
Grosso a few generations ago, and far better equipped, too, 
than ever were the barber-surgeons of Europe before the 
epoch-making discoveries of Pasteur and Lister. For, 
thanks to these illustrious investigators, Sigg had the 
means of preventing putrefaction and septicemia ; the mili- 
tary and barber-surgeons in question had not. 

It was with sincere regret that I left Utiarity. I en- 
joyed immensely every hour spent in this little Indian 
village so far away from the artificial wants and ills of 
the outer world and so completely removed from 

"The fraudful arts, the covert strife 
The jarring- interests that engross mankind, 
The low pursuits, the selfish aims of life." 

I had become so accustomed to the kindly greetings and 
the winsome ways of my little Indian friends that I would 
fain have spent the rest of my days with these children 
of the peaceful solitude. More than once echoed in my 
ears the beautiful words of the poet: * 

Me dulcis saturet quies, 
Obscuro positus loco, 
Leni perfruar otio.2 

1 Op. cit., Tom. II, p. 112 et seq. 
2 Let me, in some obscure place 
Keep myself in sweet quiet, 
And there enjoy leisure. 

500 





p 




JOURNEYING IN THE JUNGLE 

It was in Utiarity, which will ever remain associated 
with some of my pleasantest memories of the wilderness, 
that my journeying in the jungle had its northern terminus. 
My original intention was to go on to the Amazon. But 
during this expedition, as during my previous travels in 
South America, my chief interest was only in traversing 
those regions which had, in the long ago, felt the foot- 
steps of the Conquistadores. The heavily forested terri- 
tory between Utiarity and the Amazon was devoid of the 
glamour which the achievements of these remarkable men 
had cast over almost every part of the continent, and the 
sentiment which had impelled me to visit all the other 
lands of the Southern Cross was here wanting. I had 
before navigated the Amazon from the Andes to the At- 
lantic and felt no inclination to sail on its waters again. 
I was also familiar with many of its tributaries, and there 
was, therefore, nothing to attract me along the affluents 
which the other members of the expedition purposed de- 
scending. There were, however, reaches of the lower 
Paraguay and Parana which I had not seen, and these, 
on account of their association with Juan de Solis and 
Sebastian Cabot, Pedro de Mendoza and Cabeza de Vaca, 
I did not wish to leave unvisited. As for my American 
associates, none of them had ever beheld the wonders of 
the world's great father of waters and they were, there- 
fore, all eager to contemplate the glories of the historic 
waterway which so long bore the name of its illustrious 
discoverer, Francisco de Orellana, The other members of 
the expedition, with the exception of my Fidus Achates — 
Sigg — left Utiarity the day before I did — all of them bound 
for the Amazon, some by way of the Madeira and the 
others by way of the mysterious Rio da Duvida. Accom- 
panied by Sigg, who was always ready for everything and 
who did everything well, I returned to Tapirapuhan — most 
of the way on a slow-going mule — where our little launch, 
An jo d' Adventura — Angel of Adventure — was to meet us 

501 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S SOUTHLAND 

and take us to Corumba. Thence we proceeded, by the 
Paraguay and the Parana, through the fertile plains of 
La Plata to Montevideo. From this point Sigg, loyal and 
devoted to the last, returned to Asuncion to cast in his 
lot with some friends of the struggling Republic of Para- 
guay. Still following the commanding figures of the con- 
quest, in South America's Southland, I boarded a steamer 
for Cape Verde and the Canary Islands — so noted in the 
annals of South American discovery — whence I sailed to 
Spain, a country which I had frequently visited with ever- 
increasing interest — Spain, the home of romance and chiv- 
alry, of saints and heroes, of explorers and discoverers; 
the motherland of those illustrious men in whose footsteps 
I had been treading for more than a third of a century, of 
those matchless Conquistadores whose lives were so full 
of incident and action and who lent 

"The color of romance 
To every trivial circumstance," 

and who inscribed their names on history's scroll in such 
brilliant and enduring characters that they will shine with 
undiminished luster as long as human hearts thrill at the 
recital of acts of knightly prowess or the world's laureates 
sing of glorious deeds of high emprise. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT WORKS CITED IN THIS VOLUME 

Amunategui, M. L. Vida de Andres Bello. Santiago, 1882. 

Question de Limites entre Chile i La Republica Argentina. 

Santiago, 1879-80. 
Angelis, Pedro de Coleccion de Obras y Documentos Eelativos a la 

Historia Antigua y Moderna de las Provincias del Eio de 

La Plata. Buenos Aires, 1835. 

Barbosa, Eodrigues J. Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium. Brus- 
sels, 1903. 

Palmse Mattogrossenses. Rio de Janeiro, 1898. 

Palma? Novae Paraguayenses. Rio de Janeiro, 1899. 

Barco Centenera, Martin del Argentina. Lisbon, 1602. 

Barros, Arana, Diego Historia Jeneral de Chile. Santiago, 1884- 
1897. 

Brabo, F. J. Inventarios de los Bienes Hallados a la Expulsion de 
los Jesuitas. Madrid, 1872. 

Burmeister, H. Description Physique de la Republique Argentine. 
Paris, 1876-78. 

Castelnau, Francis de Expedition dans les Parties Centrales de 

l'Amerique du Sud. Paris, 1850-1851. 
Charlevoix, P. F. X. de The History of Paraguay. London, 1769. 
Church, G. E. Aborigines of South America. London, 1912. 
Cordemoy, C. de Au Chile. Paris, 1899. 

Darwin, Charles Journal of Researches into the Natural History 
and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of 
H. M. S. Beagle Round the World. London, 1852. 

Denis, Pierre Brazil. London, 1911. 

Diaz de Guzman, Rui Historia Argentina del Descubrimiento, 
Poplacion y Conquista de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata. 
Buenos Aires, 1835. 

503 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Dobrizhoffer, Martin An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian 

People of Paraguay. London, 1822. 
Dominguz, L. L. Historia Argentina. Buenos Aires, 1870. 

Ercilla Zuniga, Alonso de La Araucana. Santiago de Chile, 1888. 
Errazuriz, Crescente Historia de Chile. Pedro de Valdivia. 

Santiago de Chile, 1911. 
Espejo, G. El Paso de los Andes. Buenos Aires, 1882. 

Falkner, Thomas Description of Patagonia and the Adjoining 

Parts of South America. Hereford, 1774. 
Ferrer del Rio, Antonio Historia del Reinado de Carlos III en 

Espaiia. Madrid, 1856. 
Fonseca, Joao Severiano da Viagem ao Redor do Brasil. Rio de 

Janeiro, 1880. 
Frias, Bernardo Historia del General de Martin Giiemes y de la 

Provincia de Salta. Salta, 1902. 
Funes, Gregorio Ensayo de la Historia Civil del Paraguay, Buenos 

Aires y Tucuman. Buenos Aires, 1910. 

Gaffarel, Paul Histoire du Bresil Francais au Seizieme Siecle. 

Paris, 1878. 
Garro, J. M. Bosquejo Historico de la Universidad de Cordoba. 

Buenos Aires, 1882. 
Gay, Claudio Historia Fisica y Politica de Chile. Documentos. 

Paris, 1846. 
Graham, R. B. Cunninghame A Vanished Arcadia. New York, 

1901. 
Groussac, Pablo Memoria Historica y Descriptiva de la Provincia 

de Tucuman. Buenos Aires, 1882. 
Guevara, Jose Historia del Paraguay, Rio de la Plata y Tucuman, 

in Coleccion de Obras Documentos Relativos a la Historia 

Antigua y Moderna de las Provincias de La Plata, by Pedro 

de Angelis. Buenos Aires, 1836. 
Guillaine, L. La Republique Argentine. Paris, 1889. 

Herrera, Antonio de Historia General de los Hechos de los Cas- 
tellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano. 
Madrid, 1728. 

504 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Hirst, W. A. Argentina. London, 1912. 

Holdich, Thomas H. The Countries of the King's Award. Lon- 
don, 1904. 

Hrdlicka, Ales. Early Man in South America. Washington, 1912. 

Huret, Jules En Argentine. De Buenos Aires au Gran Chaco. 
Paris, 1912. 

En Argentine. De La Plata a, la Cordillere des Andes. Paris, 

1913. 

Levillier, Eobert Les Origines Argentines. Paris, 1912. 

Mackenna, B. Vicuna Relaciones Historicas. Santiago de Chile, 

1877. 

El Jeneral D. Jose de San Martin. Santiago, 1902. 

Maitland, F. J. Chile : Its Land and People. London, 1914. 
Maneso, C. M. El Uruguay a traves de un Siglo. Montevideo, 1910. 
Martinez, Albert B. and Lewandewski, Maurice The Argentine 

in the Twentieth Century. Boston, n. d. 
Martius, C. F. von Historia Naturalis Palmarum. Leipsic, 1850. 
Menendez, Fray Francisco Viajes de. Publicados y Comentados 

por Francisco Fonck. Valparaiso, 1896-1900. 
Menendez y Pelayo, M. Antologia de Poetas Hispano-Americanas. 

Madrid, 1893. 
Mitre, Bartolome Historia de Belgrano. Buenos Aires, 1859. 

Historia de San Martin. Buenos Aires, 1887-1888. 

Molina, J. I. The Geographical, Natural and Civil History of 

Chile. Middleton, Conn., 1808. 
Montoya, Antonio Ruiz de Conquista, Espiritual. Madrid, 1639. 
Moraleda; Montero, Jose de Exploraciones Jeograficas i Hidro- 

graficas. Santiago de Chile, 1888. 
Muratori, Ludovico II Cristianesimo Felice nelle Missioni de' 

Padri della Compagnia di Gesu nel Paraguai. Venice, 1743. 

Neuwied-Wied, Maximilian, Prince of Reise nach Brasilien in 
den Jahren 1815 bis 1817. Frankfurt a. m., 1820. 

Nunez, Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Relacion de Los Naufragios y Co- 
mentarios. Madrid, 1906. 

Orbigny, A. D. d' Fragment d' un Voyage au Centre de l'Ainerique 
Centrale. Paris, 1845. 

505 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Orleans-Bragance, Prince Louis de Sous la Croix du Sud. 

Paris, 1912. 
Ovalle, Alonso de Historica Relacion del Reyno de Chile. Rome, 

1646. 

Page, Thomas La Plata, the Argentine Confederation and Para- 
guay. New York, 1859. 

Pennington, A. Stuart The Argentine Republic. London, 1910. 

Piaggio, Augustin Influencia del Clero en la Independencia Ar- 
gentina. Barcelona, 1912. 

Pradel, J. F. Le Chili Apres Cent Ans d' Independance. Paris, 
1912. 

Purchas, S. Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes. 
Glasgow, 1905-1906. 

Roosevelt, Theodore Through the Brazilian Wilderness. New 
York, 1914. 

Rosales, Diego de Historia General de el Reyno de Chile. Val- 
paraiso, 1877. 

Rosales, V. P. Recuerdos del Pasado. Santiago del Chile, 1886. 

Rumbold, H. The Great Silver River. London, 1890. 

Sainte-Foy, Charles Vie du Venerable Joseph Anchieta. Paris, 
1858. 

Schmidel, Ulrich Viaje de, Al Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires, 
1903. 

Scott, Elliott G. F. Chile, Its History and Development. Lon- 
don, 1911. 

Smith, W. Anderson Temperate Chile. London, 1899. 

Southey, Robert History of Brazil. London, 1810-1819. 

Steinen, Karl von den Durch Central-Brasilien. Leipsic, 1886. 

Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens. Berlin, 1894. 

Techo, Nicolas del Historia Provincial Paraquaraiee Societatis 

Jesu. Leodi, 1673. 
Thayer-Ojeda, Tomas Los Conquistadores de Chile. Santiago de 

Chile, 1910. 

Las Antiguas Ciudades de Chile. Santiago de Chile, 1911. 

506 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

' Thevet, Andre Les Singularity de la France Antartique; Nou- 
velle Edition avec Notes et Commentaires, par Paul Gaf- 
farel. Paris, 1878. 

Ticknor, George History of Spanish Literature. Boston, 1891. 

Tonnelat, E. L 'Expansion Allemande Hors d 'Europe. Paris, 
1908. 

Torrente, Mariano D. Historia de la Revolucion Hispano- Ameri- 
cana. Madrid, 1830. 

Urien, Carlos M. Geografia Argentina. Buenos Aires, 1905. 

Walle, Paul. Au Bresil, De l'Uruguay au Rio Sao Francisco. 

Paris, n. d. 
Willis, Bailey Northern Patagonia. New York, 1914. 

Vasconcellos, Sim^o de Chronica da Companhia de Jesu do Estado 

do Brasil. Lisbon, 1865. 
Vega, Garcilasso de la Commentarios Reales. Madrid, 1723. 

Zahm, J. A. (H. J. Mozans) Up the Orinoco and Down the Magda- 
lena. New York, 1910. 

' Along the Andes and Down the Amazon. New York, 1911. 

\ Zahm, J. A. (Manso, J. A.) The Quest of El Dorado. Washing- 
ton, 1912. 

Coleccion de Obras y Documentos Relativos a la Historia Antigua 
y Moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata. Buenos 
Aires, 1835. 
Coleccion de Histiadores de Chile y Documentos Relativos a, la 
Historia Nacional. Santiago de Chile, 1898-1907. 
- A Collection of Voyages and Travels. Churchill, London, 1732. 



INDEX 



Aconcagua Mountain, 263, 269, 286 

A Cruz, newspaper, 440 

Acuna, Padre de, 96, 97 

Agriculture in Argentina, 179, 186, 
208, 210, 390; checks to, 188-191; 
rapid development of, 187 

Agriculture in Brazil, 99-101, 106 

Agriculture in Chile, German devel- 
opment of, 333, 334 

Agriculture in Uruguay, 131 

Aguirre, Lope de, 487 

Albarracin, Don Jaime, quoted, 247 

Albuquerque, Luiz de, 429, 455, 484 

Alerce tree, 349 

Alligators, 423 

Almagro, Diego de, 276, 277 

Alonso, Mateo, 266, 267 

Alpaca wool-weaving, 204 

Alvares, Diogo, 33 

Amazon River, exploration of, 27, 
96, 460; sources of, 459 

Ameghino, Dr., 168, 383 

Amerigo Vespucci, 31 

Amunategui, M. L., 296 

Anahuac Valley, 48 

Anchieta, Jose de, 83-85, 90, 91 

Andes Mountains, geology of the, 
269; giant trees of the, 349; pas- 
sage of the, by San Martin, 262, 
263, 271-273; plans for national 
park in the, 368; railway travel 
over the, 270; scenery of the, 
269, 285, 286, 340-351, 363, 364 

Angelis, Pedro de, quoted, 360, 361 

Animals, of Argentina, 176, 177, 
376, 383; of the Brazilian for- 



ests, 453; protection of, near Rio 
de Janeiro, 74; of Uruguay, 130, 
131 
Ant-eater, 453 
Anzures, Pero, 441 
Arana, R. Barros, 296, 362 
Araucanian Indians, 202, 204; be- 
lief of in after-life, 318, 319; 
effects of civilization on, 327; in- 
dependence of, 325, 326; oratory 
of, 328-330; resistance to Span- 
ish invasion of, 317-322, 324, 
325; use of alcohol among, 327; 
women of, 322-324 
Araucaria brasiliensis tree, 106, 113 
Arbitration, success of, in South 

America, 266, 268, 269, 288 
Argentina, agriculture in, 179, 186, 
208, 210, 390; ancient Indian 
civilization in, 202-204; animals 
of, 176, 383; beef production in, 
185, 186; cattle ranching in, 180- 
184; constitution of, 236, 237; 
desert land in, 175, 224, 225, 376, 
378, 379; droughts in, 188, 383; 
education in, 159, 160-164, 231- 
238; fertile regions of, 386, 390; 
flowers of, 155, 156 ; foreign capi- 
tal in, 170; fossils in, 177, 178, 
383; Gauchos of, 175, 191, 196; 
immigrant population of, 153- 
155, 169, 170, 186; locusts in, 188, 
189; mutton production in, 185, 
186; naval growth of, 381; old 
Spanish families of, 196, 197; 
Quichua language in, 202; rail- 



509 



INDEX 



roads in, 186, 200, 385, 386; sheep 
raising in, 182, 184; social condi- 
tions in, 189, 190, 196; sugar in- 
dustry in, 209; Turks in, 378; 
War of Independence in, 152, 158, 
159, 212-214, 253; wheat exporta- 
tion in, 200, 201 ; see also Pampa, 
Patagonia 
Argentine boundary difficulties, 266, 

268, 269 
Argentine Mesopotamia, 386, 390 
Argentine Pampa, 173-175 
Argentine patriotism, 167, 168 
Arguello, Sebastian de, 353-355 
Armadillo, 176, 383, 453 
Armentia, bishop, 486 (note) 
"Army of the Andes," 257-265, 

270 
Artigas, Jose, 130 
Asuncion, colonial customs in, 409; 
race mixture in, 409 ; schools in, 
413; vicissitudes of, 410, 411 
Augustinians in Argentina, 220 
Avenida Beira Mar, in Rio de Jan- 
eiro, 58-60 
Avenida de las Delicias, in San- 
tiago, 282 
Avenida de Mayo, in Buenos Aires, 

151 
Avenida Rio Branco, in Rio de Jan- 
eiro, 54, 55 
Ayacueho, Battle of, 241, 273 
Ayolas, Juan de, 95, 149, 428; ex- 
ploration of Parana River by, 
389, 390 
Azevedo, Joao de Souza, 460, 465, 

476 
Azevedo, Dr. Ramos de, 86 
Aztec Indians, 21 



Bahia, churches in, 34, 35; city im- 



510 



provements in, 36; commercial 
importance of, 36, 37, 44, 45; 
early settlement of, 33, 34; edu- 
cation in, 35, 36; exports of, 36; 
reception in, 32, 33, 44 

Bahia Blanca, 164; commercial im- 
portance of, 381; reception in, 
382 

Barbados, 23, 24 

Bariloche, entertainment at, 366, 
367, 372, 373 ; national park proj- 
ect at, 368 

Barnuevo, Peralta, 295 

Barros, Joao de, 39 

Beef industries, in southern Brazil, 
118; in Uruguay, 134-136 

Beef production in Argentina, 185, 
186 

Beef waste on Pampa, 182 

Belgrano, Manuel, 213, 214, 238, 
260, 273 ; monument to, in Buenos 
Aires, 158; monument to, in Tu- 
cuman, 212 

Bello, Andres, 287 ; arbitration work 
of, 288; university work of, 288, 
289 

Beltran, Luis, 258-259, 270 

Benedictine college in Sao Paulo, 
90, 91 

Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 
South America, 303, 381 

Bethlehemites in Argentina, 220 

Bezoar stone, 376 

Biobio River in Chile, 317 

Birds of the Brazilian forest, 452, 
465, 466 

Blumenau, city of, 108, 122 

Blumenau, Dr. Hermann, 108 

Bogota, 3; university of, 67 

Bolas weapon, 377 

Bolivar, rubber production in, 
abuses of, 486 (note) 



INDEX 



Bolivar, Simon, 213, 273, 287 ; pas- 
sage of the Andes by, 272 

Bonpland, Aime, 391, 392 

Bororos Indians, 432 

Bosco, Giovanni, 429; missionary- 
plans of, 430, 437 

Botanical gardens, of Buenos Aires, 
155; of Montevideo, 139, 140; of 
Bio de Janeiro, 69, 70 

Boundary difficulties in South 
America, arbitration of, 266, 268, 
269 

Boyaca, Battle of, 272, 273 

Bravard, M., 247 

Brazil, agriculture in, 99, 100, 101, 
106, 107; changes of government 
in, 72, 73; coffee production in, 
99, 100; confusion of names in, 
455; desert lands of, 479-481, 
490; diamond production in, 36, 
education in, 35, 67-69, 90-92, 
455-457; foreign capital in, 65, 
66; forests of, 74, 106, 107, 464- 
471, 477, 478; forests of, animal 
life of, 452, 453, 465, 466 ; immi- 
grant population of, 92, 93, 107- 
109; Jesuit mission in, 83-85; 
origin of name of, 37-39; palm 
trees of, 464-471; Portuguese ex- 
ploration of, 95-98 ; production of 
mate in, 111-115; race mixture 
in, 39-43, 85, 95, 98; racial differ- 
ences in northern and southern, 
108; railroads in, 66, 101, 104, 
105, 122, 125; river scenery of, 
448-451, 464-470; rivers of, ex- 
ploration of, 27, 96, 459, 460, 
482 ; rubber production in, 101 ; 
slavery in, 97, 108, 395, 484-486 

Brazil, Dr. Vidal, 87, 88 

Brazil Railway Company, 66, 104, 
105 



511 



Brazilian hospitality, 32, 33, 44, 45, 
53, 54, 81, 105, 125, 126 

Brazilian literature, 69, 84 

Brazilian Telegraphic Commission, 
472, 476, 493, 494 

Brebeuf, Jean de, 440 

Buccaneers in South America, 21, 
240, 299 

Buenos Aires, architecture of, 151, 
156-158, 165, 166; Botanical Gar- 
dens of, 155; charitable work in, 
160-164; churches in, 151, 152, 
157, 158; commercial importance 
of, 147-149, 164-166; contraband 
trade of, in colonial times, 241; 
docks of, 147, 164; education in, 
159, 160-164; electricity in, 165; 
foreign capital in, 170; harbor 
of, 147; hospitals in, 160-164; 
narrow streets of, 150, 151, 157; 
population of, 153-155, 169, 170; 
reception in, 148, 149, 170-172; 
sanitation in, 164, 165; street-car 
system of, 165 

Burrneister, Herman, 226 

Butterflies of Rio de Janeiro, 75 



Cabot, Sebastian, 149, 388, 501; 
exploration of Parana River by, 
389 

Cabral, Pedro Alvares, 38, 39 

Cajazeira, Dr., 478 

Calbuco, volcano, 340, 343 

Calchaque Indians, 202-204, 229 

Callado, Francisco da Rocha, Gen- 
eral, 116 

Calle Florida, in Buenos Aires, 151 

Campos dos Parecis, 479 

Capuchins in Brazil, 482 

Capybara, 445, 453 

Carbajal, 96, 97, 486 



INDEX 



Carbrera, Geronino Luis de, 226, 
229 

Carib fish, 417, 418 

Carib Indians, 19 

Caribees, 19-21 

Carioea, 56 

Carioea aqueduct, 76 

Carioea tradition, 76, 77 

Carmelites in Brazil, 482 

Casa Dorada, in Buenos Aires, 151 

Casa Rosada, in Buenos Aires, 151 

Casanova, Mariano, Arelibisbop, 290, 
294 

Castellanos, Juan de, 295, 486 

Castelnau, Francis de, quoted, 459 

Castilio, Pedro, 246 

Castro, 6 

Cathedral of Buenos Aires, 151, 152 

Catholic clergy and South American 
independence, 218-223, 236, 237, 
258 

Catholic university in Santiago, 290, 
293 

Catholicism, in Argentina, 158, 160, 
231, 232, 266, 267, 393 ; in Brazil, 
83-85, 90, 91, 432, 433, 455-457, 
482; in Chile, 287, 290-294, 315, 
327, 338, 339; in Ecuador, 432; 
in Paraguay, 394-400, 402, 429, 
434; in Patagonia, 369, 370, 372, 
431, 432; in Tierra del Fuego, 
431, 432; in Uruguay, 138, 139, 
144, 145 

Cattle ranching, in Argentina, 183, 
184; in Brazil, 110; in Uruguay, 
131-136 

Caupolican, Chief, 317, 322; statue 
of, in Santiago, 284 

Caymans, 423 

Cebu, 453 

Centera, Barco, 295 

Central Argentine Railway, 200 



Central Uruguay Railway, 126 

Cereals, exportation of, in Argen- 
tina, 200, 201; production of, in 
Argentina, 187; production of, in 
Brazil, 106; production of, in 
Uruguay, 131 

Cesar, Moreira, 56 

Chacabuco, Battle of, 272, 273 

Chacama Indians, 393 

Chanar, shrub, 175 

Chapada of Brazil, 490, 491 

Chapman, Frank, 8, 9 

Charlevoix, P. F. X. de, quoted, 396 

Charrua Indians, 130, 388 

Chauvinism in Argentina, 168 

Chaves, Nuflo de, 95, 441, 442, 453 

Cherrie, George K, 8, 9, 10, 428 

Chicago Beef Trust in Uruguay, 136 

Chigoes, 443 

Chile, boundary difficulties of, 266, 
268, 269, 314; charitable work in, 
297, 338, 339; desert lands of, 
275-277; education in, 287-291, 
293-295, 338; encomienda system 
in, 307-311 ; fertile lands of, 306, 
333 ; forest resources of, 349 ; 
French nuns in, 338; German set- 
tlement in, 326, 331-337, 341, 342; 
Indian population of, 326; In- 
dian wars in, 317-322, 324, 325; 
lumber industry in, 334; military 
spirit in, 312-314; military vica- 
riate in, 315; mineral wealth of, 
275, 303; mountain sceneiy of, 
285, 286, 340-346, 363; native 
labor in, 292, 306-310, 331; naval 
defense of, 312; newspapers in, 
294, 295; nitrate fields of, 331; 
potato culture in, 307; railway 
development in, 300; shape and 
size of, 275; social conditions in, 
292, 293, 298, 308-311; Spanish 



512 



INDEX 



feudalism in, 308-311; University 
of, 67, 287-289; wine industry in, 
306, 307 
Chilean hospitality, 305, 336-339 
Chilean literature, 295, 319-324, 329, 

330 
Chilean patriotism, 315, 316, 329, 

330 
Chiquito Indians, 396, 485 
Christ of the Andes, statue, 265-268 
Churches, in Bahia, 34, 35; in 
Buenos Aires, 151, 152, 157, 158; 
in Cordoba, 230; in Rio de Jan- 
eiro, 66, 67; in Santiago, 291 
City improvement in South Amer- 
ica, 36, 61-65, 94, 95, 150, 151, 
157, 164-166, 231 
Cocoa exportation from Brazil, 36 
Coelho, Gongalo, 49 
Coffee exportation from Brazil, 36, 

99, 100 
Coimbra, University of, 69 
Colombia, Salesian fathers in, 434 
Colombia-Peru controversy, arbitra- 
tion of, 288 
Colonization. See Immigrant popu- 
lation 
Columbus, Christopher, 21 
Commerce in South America, 28, 
29, 36, 37, 45, 46, 52, 53, 164, 170, 
301-304, 381, 382; early Spanish 
monopoly of, 238; effect of Pan- 
ama Canal on, 303, 304; old 
Spanish route for, 239, 240 
Commercial monopoly in colonial 

times, 241, 242 
Coneepcion, Chile, earthquakes in, 

316, 317; foundation of, 316 
Coneepcion, Paraguay, 418 
Conquistadores, in the Andes, 347; 
in Argentina, 226-229; in Chile, 
275-278, 308-311; on the Para- 

513 



guay River, 428, 441-445; in 
search of the Enchanted City, 
355-357; in South America, 2, 3, 
21, 22, 361, 362, 370, 501; in 
South America, incentives of, 228 

Convent schools, in Cordoba, 231, 
232; in Santiago, 290, 291 

Corcovado Mountain, 48, 70; ascent 
of, 74-76 

Cordilleras Mountains, 2; passage 
of San Martin's army over, 262, 
264, 270 

Cordoba, 173, 174; agricultural de- 
velopment of, 225, 227; banquet 
to our party in, 245 ; churches in, 
230 ; colonial architecture of, 230 ; 
commerce of, under Spanish rule, 
240; education in, 231-235; foun- 
dation of, 226, 229; people of, 
230; water supply of, 231; Uni- 
versity of, 67, 232 ; University of, 
foundation of, 233 , University of, 
mathematics and physics in, 235 

Coroado Indians, 432 

Cortes, Hernando, 21 

Corumba, charitable work in, 429, 
434, 435; education in, 429, 434, 
435; welcome at, 428 

Cotton production in Brazil, 101 

Cousino, Isadora, 282 

Cousino, Luis, 282 

Cousino Park in Santiago, 282 

Criollo cattle, 132, 184 

Crown of Thorns, Argentine theory 
of, 168 

Cruz, Dr. Oswaldo, 62, 63 

Cuenca Vidal Reservoir, in Argen- 
tina, 379, 380 

Curibocos, 40 

Curityba, 108, 122 

Cuyaba River, 439, 440 

Cuzco language in Argentina, 202 



INDEX 



Dames de Sion School, 91 

Dairy industries in Uruguay, 136, 

137 
Dayde, Ambrosio, 440 
Dea Palmaris, shrine of, 466 
"Dead Inca," 48 
Dedo de Deus Mountain, 50 
Deer, marsh, 453 
Democracy, lack of true, in South 

America, 298 
Descalvado, village, 453 
Deserts, of Argentina, 175, 224, 225, 

376, 378, 379; of Brazil, 479-481, 

490; of Chile, 275-277 
Diamonds of Brazil, 36, 37 
Dias, A. Goncalves, 470 
Dictatorship, in South America, 410- 

413 
Dique San Roque Reservoir, in Cor- 
doba, 231 
Dobrizhoffer, Martin, quoted, 180, 

426, 427 
Dominica Island, 22 
Dominicans, in Argentina, 218, 220, 

266; in Brazil, 97; missionary 

work of, 394 
D'Orbigny, Alcide, 396 
Drake, Sir Francis, 21, 299 
Dredging in Buenos Aires Harbor, 

147 
Droughts in Argentina, 188 
Duprat, Monsignor, 153 
Duvida River, 420 



Earthquakes, building materials re- 
sistant to, 248; in Concepcion, 
Chile, 316; in Mendoza, 246-248; 
in Santiago, 280; in Valparaiso, 
299 

Ecclesiastical seminary, in Concep- 



cion, Chile, 293; in Santiago, 291, 
293 

Ecuador, Salesian fathers in, 432 

Ecuador-United States controversy, 
arbitration of, 288 

Education, in Argentina, 159, 160- 
164, 231-238, 249; in Brazil, 35, 
36, 67-69, 90-92, 455-457; in 
Chile, 287-291, 293-295, 338; in 
Paraguay, 413, 429, 434, 435; in 
Uruguay, 138 

Edward VII of England, arbitra- 
tion of South American boun- 
daries by, 266 

El Dorado, 362, 390 

El Gran Moxo, 446-448 

El Mercurio, newspaper, 294 

Emus, 376, 377 

Enchanted City of the Caesars, 353- 
359, 390, 447 

Encomienda system in Chile, 307- 
311 

English, in Buenos Aires, 170; in 
Valparaiso, 300, 301 

English invasion of Argentina, 15S, 
159 

"Enshrouded woman," 48 

Equatorial temperature, 25, 26 

Ercilla, Alonzo de, epic poem of, 
295, 319, 323-325 

Errazuriz, Crescente, 296 

Eucalyptus tree, 175 

Eyzaguire, Ignacio Gonzalez, Arch- 
bishop, 293, 294; journalistic 
work of, 294 



Fagnano, Monsignore, 431 
Falkner, Thomas, quoted, 180 
Falucho, monument to, in Buenos 

Aires, 151 
Farquhar, Percival, 66, 105 



514 



INDEX 



Faweett, P. H. Major, quoted, 486 
(note) 

Feudalism in Chile, 308-310 

Mala, Anthony, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 
428 

Fidelis, Keverend Fr., 157, 158 

"Finger of God," mountain, 50 

Fishing in Paraguay River, 417, 418 

Flores de Leon, Diego, 347, 350, 353, 
357 

Flowers, of Argentina, 155, 156 ; of 
Rio de Janeiro, 69, 70; of Uru- 
guay, 129, 139, 140 

Fonck, Francisco, 350, 351, 352 

Fonseca, Joao Saveriano da, quot- 
ed, 460 

Foreign capital, in Argentina, 170; 
in Brazil, 65, 66 

Forests, of Brazil, 74, 106, 107, 464- 
471, 477, 478; of Brazil, animal 
life of, 452, 453, 465, 466; of 
Brazil, travel in, 473, 475; of 
Chile, 334, 349 

Fossils of animals in Argentina, 
177, 178, 383 

Francia, Dr. Rodriguez, Jose Gas- 
par, 391, 410, 411 

Franciscan College of Sao Luiz, 
455, 456 

Franciscans, in Argentina, 220, 233, 
258; in Brazil, 97, 455-458, 482; 
in Chile, 327, 348, 350, 351, 359; 
in the Chaco, 425-427; mission- 
ary work of, 394 

French, in Brazil, 72; in Buenos 
Aires, 170; in Valparaiso, 300 

French nuns in South America, 338, 
339, 457 

Frio Lake, mountain scenery 
around, 348 

Frontin, Paulo, 62 

Funes, Gregorio, 233; Argentine 



constitution drafted by, 236 ; legal 
eminence of, in Spain, 234; on 
mission Indians of Paraguay, 
398; statue of, in Cordoba, 238; 
university work of, 235 
Fur seal in Uruguay, 130, 131 



Gama, Don Domicio da, 43 
Garay, Juan de, 146, 147 (note), 

150, 229 
Garden of Eden, locations of, 168, 

383, 384 
Gaucho, living conditions of, 191 
Gaucho songs, 192-194 
Gauchos, of Argentina, 175, 191, 

196; of Brazil, 117, 118; of Uru- 
guay, 129, 130 
Gavea Mountain, 48 
Geology of Andes Mountains, 269; 

of Pampean deserts, 225 
German military system in South 

America, 313 
"German peril" agitation in Brazil, 

120, 121, 123 
Germans, in Brazil, 108, 119, 120- 

122; in Buenos Aires, 170; in 

southern Chile, 326, 331-337, 342; 

in Valparaiso, 300, 301 
Germany and South America, 36, 

37, 45, 46, 120, 121, 123, 301-303 
Gil y Lemus, Francisco, 359 
Gilded Man of Lake Guatavita, 447 
Glaciers of Tronador, 344-346 
Gobernador Island, 49 
Gold, search for, in South America, 

95-98, 361, 362, 446-448, 484 
Golden City of Manoa in Guiana, 

447 
Gorgas, Colonel, 63 
Government changes in Brazil, 72, 

73 



INDEX 



Government factions in Uruguay, 

142 
Goyaz, Paulista exploration of, 95 
Graaff, Johannes de, 22 
Grain. See Cereals 
Gran Chaco, extent of, 424; Indians 

of, 425-427; missionary work in, 

425-427 
Gran Paititi, 390 
Grela, Ignacio, 218 
Groussac, Pablo, 204, 248 
Guanabara Bay, 49-52 
Guanabara Palace, 53 
Guanaeo, 376, 377 
Guapay River, early exploration of, 

441-445 
Guapore River, 96, 460 
Guarani Indians, 393; in Asuncion, 

409; under Jesuit rule, 397-400 
Guevara, Jose, quoted, 448 
Guillelmo, Padre, 369 



Half breeds, in Argentina, 205; in 
Brazil, 39-43, 85, 95, 98; in Brazil, 
Jesuit mission to, 83-85; in Para- 
guay, 409 

Hamilton, Alexander, 22 

Harper, Frank, 14, 17, 18, 417, 418 

Hawkins, Sir Richard, 299 

Headball, Indian game of, 497, 498 

Herva tree, 112, 113 

Hidden Water, 49 

Hides, use of, in Argentina, 181, 182 

"Historia Naturalis Palmarurn," 467 

"Home of Birds and Palms," poem, 
471 

Horses, in Argentina, 180, 181, 183, 
184; in Uruguay, 137 

Huiracocha, Chief, 203 

Humboldt, Alexander von, 288, 392 
483 



Humming-bird, 452 

Hunting expeditions of Roosevelt 

party, 438, 462, 463 
Hutten, Philip von, 96 



Igreja de Sao Sebastiao Church, in 
Bahia, 67 

Immigrant population, of Argen- 
tina, 169, 170, 186, 189, 190, 378; 
of Brazil, 92, 93, 107-109; of 
Chile, 326, 331-337, 341, 342 

Incas, 21 

Incas, ancient empire of, 202-204, 
311, 312 

Independence, Hall of, in Tucuman, 
214, 215 

Independence, War of. See War of 
Independence 

Indian labor in Chile, 307-311 

Indian languages, 84, 202, 426, 427 

Indian wars in Chile, 317-322, 324, 
325 

Indians of Argentina, ancient civil- 
ization of, 202-204; increase of 
population of, 202, 205 

Indians of Brazil, 39, 40, 41, 496- 
500; headball game of, 497, 498; 
Jesuit missionary work among, 
83-85; production of mate by, 
112-114 ; S a le s i a n missionary 
work among, 432, 433 ; slavery of, 
97, 395, 484-486; use of palm by, 
468, 469 

Indians of Paraguay, advancement 
of, under Jesuit rule, 399, 400; 
expert printing of, 396, 397; mis- 
sionary work among, 394-396 

Indians of Patagonia, 376, 377; 
mission to, 369 

Indians of Tierra del Fuego, Sale- 
sian mission to, 430-432 



516 



INDEX 



Instituto Oswaldo Cruz in Bahia, 

64, 65 
Instituto Seruintherapico of Butan- 

tan in Sao Paulo, 86, 87 
Irala, Domingo de, 95, 149, 441, 442 
Iron mountain in Chile, 303 
Irrigation in Argentina, 225, 245, 

379, 380 
Italians, in Mendoza, 252 ; in Buenos 

Aires, 169; in Sao Paulo, 92, 93 
Ixtaccihuatl Mountain, 48 



Jabiru stork, 452 

Jaearanda tree, 155, 207 

Jacares, 423 

Japanese in South America, 6, 7 

Jesuits, in the Andes, 350, 357; in 

Argentina, 393-406; in Brazil, 83- 
■ 85, 97, 482; in the Chaeo, 425; in 

Paraguay, 393-406 
Jivaro Indians, 432 
Joao VI, Dom, of Brazil, 72 
Jungle, medical practice in the, 498- 

500 ; travel through the, 474, 475 ; 

vegetation in the, 477, 478 • 



Koemer, General, 314 



La Amortahada, 48 

"La Araucana," poem, 295, 319-325, 
329, 330 

La Aurora, newspaper, 295 

Labarden, Manuel Jose de, 423 

La Gasca, 441 

Laguna de los Xarayes, 446-448 

Land owners, in Argentina, 189, 
190, 375 ; in Chile, 292 

Land-owning class in South Amer- 
ica, effect on democracy of, 298 



La Piedade Church in Bahia, 34 

La Plata, Museum of, 177 

La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos 

Aires, 151, 152 
Lasagna, Bishop, 433 
Las Casas, Bishop, 394 
La Union, newspaper, 294 
Lautaro, Chief, 317, 320; military 

genius of, 320 
Lava beds of Mendoza Valley, 269 
Lemco and Oxo Company in Uru- 
guay, 134, 135 
Leon, Cieza de, 296, 487 
Liebig, Justus von, 134, 135 
Lima, Manoel Felix de, 460, 482 
Lima, University of, 67 
Literature in Brazil, 69, 84 
Llanquihue, Lake, mountain scenery 

around, 339, 340 
Lobos Islands, fur seals at, 131 
Locusts in Argentina, 188, 189 
Lopez, Carlos Antonio, 411, 487 
Lopez, Francisco Solano, 411, 412 
Lopez, Gaspar, Padre, 369 
Los Patos Pass in the Andes, 262- 

264 
Lulu Indians, 202-204 
Lumber industry in Chile, 334 
Lyceum of Arts and Trades in 
Bahia, 35 



Machinery, in Argentine sugar in- 
dustry, 209; for wine-making in 
Mendoza, 251 
Mackenna, B. Vicuna, 296, 355, 363 
Mackenzie, Murdo, 110 
Mackenzie, Sir William, 65 
Madeira River, 96, 460 
Mae dAgua of Brazil, 450 
Magalhaes, Amilcar de, Captain, 
476 
517 



INDEX 



Magellan, 71 

Maipo, Battle of, 272 

Mamelucos, 40, 85, 95; explorations 
of, 95-97 ; Jesuit work among, 83- 
85; slave raids of, 97, 395, 405, 
484, 485 

Maruore River, 96, 460 

Mangue Canal, in Rio de Janeiro, 
56, 57 

Mansvelt, 21 

Manto headdress for women in San- 
tiago, 291, 292 

Manuela la Tucumana, 212 

Mapuches, 317 

Maria Ausiliatriee, Sisters of, 429, 
435-437; in Brazil, 433, 436; in 
Tierra del Fuego, 431 

Marques, Dr. Joaquin A. da Costa, 
439 

Marquette, 440 

Martinique, 20, 23 

Martius, Karl Friedrich von, 467 

Mascardi, Nicolas, 350, 357, 358, 
362 

Mataquito, Battle of, 321 

Mate, food value of, 115-117 

Mate industry, in Brazil, 111-115; 
in Paraguay, 421 

Matto Grosso, Catholicism in, 455- 
457; Indians of, 432, 433; mis- 
sionary exploration of, 481-487; 
Paulista exploration of, 96; slav- 

v ery in, 484, 485 

Maule River, 311, 317 

Medical practice in the Brazilian 
jungle, 498-500 

Medical research in Sao Paulo, 86, 
87 

Medicine, Academy of, in Bahia, 35 

Medicine, School of, in Montevideo, 
138 

Medina, Toribio, 296 



Medrano, 96, 97 

Meiggs, I^enry, 300 

Mendoza, 173, 246; earthquake in, 
246-249; education in, 249, 250; 
public park of, 249; San Martin 
in, 256, 260, 261; vineyards of, 
250, 251 

Mendoza, Garcia de, 246 

Mendoza, Pedro de, 146, 149, 180, 
428, 501; exploration of Parana 
River by, 389, 390 

Menendez, Francisco, 348, 350, 352, 
359, 371, 372; "Diarios" of, 351, 
371 

Menendez y Pelayo, M., quoted, 296 

Mercederians in Argentina, 220 

Mestizos, 40, 98, 205, 409 

Metal work, ancient Indian, 204 

Middle class, need of, in South 
America, 298 

Millalelmo, Chief, 318 

Miller, Leo, 12, 24, 25, 428 

Minas Geraes, Paulista exploration 
of, 95 

Missionaries in South America, ex- 
plorations of, 350, 357-359, 362, 
370, 483-488; literary work of, 
96, 97, 370-372, 397, 404, 405, 
487, 488 

Missionary work in the Andes, 350, 
351, 357-359; in Brazil, 83-85, 
432, 433, 482, 487, 488; in Ecua- 
dor, 432; among the Guarani In- 
dians, 393-406; in Paraguay, 394- 
400; in Tierra del Fuego, 431, 
432; among the Toba Indians, 
425-427 

Misti, volcano, 48 

Mitre, Bartolome, 214 

Molina, Dr. Jose Augustin, 216, 296 

Monroe Doctrine, Roosevelt on, 142- 
144 
518 



INDEX 



Montevideo, Atheneum in, 138, 141 ; 
charitable institutions of, 138, 
139; Botanical Gardens of, 139, 
140; modern buildings of, 138, 
139; population of, 140; rapid 
progress of, 140 ; reception of our 
party in, 138, 142-145; schools 
in, 138 ; Salesian convent in, 138 ; 
Solis Theater in, 141; University 
of, 138 ; Whites and Reds in, 142 

Montoya, Ruiz de, leadership of 
mission Indians by, 405, 406; 
works of, 404; works of, printed 
by Guarani Indians, 397 

Monuments to South American 
heroes, 152, 153, 158, 238, 256, 
262, 273 

Moreno, Dr. Francisco, 342, 352 

Morgan, 21 

Morro Escalvado, mountain, 453 

Morungava, cattle ranch at, 110, 111 

Mosquitoes, extermination of, in Rio 
de Janeiro, 63 

Mountain scenery, around Rio de 
Janeiro, 47-51, 70-79; around 
Santiago, 285, 286; of southern 
Chile, 340-346, 363 

Moxo Indians, 485 

Mucury Indians, 485 

Muiscas, 21 

Mulattoes in Brazil, 39 

Miiller, Dr. Lauro, 62, 65, 121, 419 

Mussurama snake, usefulness of, 88, 
89 

Musters, George C, 362 

Mutton production, in Argentina, 
185; in Uruguay, 137 

"Mystery of the Strait," 21, 71 



Nahuelhuapi Lake, Indians of, 369, 
377; Jesuit mission on, 357, 359; 



mountain scenery around, 350, 

367 
Naval development, of Argentina, 

381; of Chile, 312 
Negroes in Brazil, 39, 42, 57, 58 
Nevis Island, 22 
Neuquen, town of, 381 
New Granada, 3 
Nichteroy, town of, 49, 52 
Nitrate, production of, in Chile, 331 
Nordenskjold, Otto, 177, 432 
Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem 

chapel, in Rio de Janeiro, 67 
Nossa Senhora da Victoria Church, 

in Bahia, 34 
Nunez, Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar, 2, 3, 

149, 410, 441, 501; church erected 

by, 445; "Commentaries" of, 445, 

446 
Nyoac, steamboat, 419 



Obra Conservacion de la Fe, in 

Buenos Aires, 162 
O'Brien, George, Captain, 312 
O'Higgins, Ambrosio, 307 
O'Higgins, Bernardo, 262, 263, 

273 
Olivares, 296 
Omagua Indians, 393 
Orellana, Francisco de, 27, 96, 501 
Organ Mountains, 50, 51 
Oribe, General, 142 
Oriole birds, 465, 466 
Oro, Justo de Santa Maria de, 

218 
Osorno, volcano, 340-345, 364 
Our Lady of Camiel in Chile, 314, 

315 
Our Lady of Mercy, in Mendoza, 

260, 261; in Tucumau, 213, 214 
Ovalle, Alonso de, 296 



519 



INDEX 



Pacific Steam Navigation Company, 
300 

Padilla, Sr. D. Ernesto, 209 

Page, Thomas Jefferson, Captain, 
461, 465 

Paleologus, Fernando, 24 

Palm, symbolism of the, 470 

Palms of Brazil, 464-466; number 
of species of, 466, 467; varied 
uses of, 468, 469 

Palermo, Park of, in Buenos Aires, 
153-155 

Palo Santa tree, 155 

Pampa, animals of Argentine, 176- 
178, 383; arid regions on, 175, 
224, 225; cattle ranches on, 181, 
185; cultivation of, 186, 187; 
droughts on, 188; early Spanish 
colonization on, 179; early Span- 
ish trade route across, 240 ; extent 
of, 174; fertility of soil on, 175, 
176, 179, 182, 184, 187, 188; 
Gauchos of Argentine, 175, 191; 
horses on, 180, 181, 183, 184; im- 
migrant population of, 186, 189, 
190; locust plagues on, 188, 189; 
plant life on, 175, 176; railroads 
on, 186; sheep-raising on, 182, 
184; see also Argentina, Pata- 
gonia 

Panama Canal, effect of, on South 
American commerce, 303, 304; 
speech on, by Roosevelt in San- 
tiago, 280-282 

Pao d'Assucar, 47, 48, 70 

Papagaio River, falls of, 494-496 

Paqueta Island, 49 

Paraguayan tea, 111-117 

Parana, immigrant population of, 
107-109; production of mate in, 
111, 115; subtropical climate of, 
105-107 



Parana River, exploration of, 388, 
403; scenery on banks of, 386, 
387 

Paraguay, dictators of, 410-412; 
education in, 413, 429, 434, 435; 
expulsion of Jesuits from, 401, 
402; increase of Indian popula- 
tion in, 399; mission colonies of, 
394-400; mixed population of, 
409, 421 

Paraguay River, alligators of, 423; 
cruise up the, 414-416; early ex- 
ploration of, 428, 441-445, 448; 
early exploration of, accounts of, 
442-445; fishing in, 417; Gran 
Chaco on, 424; living conditions 
along, 421, 422, 439; scenery of, 
420, 421; scenery of, at night, 
448-451 

Pareeis Indians, 484, 496-500 

Passionists in South America, 157, 
158 

Passos, Dr. Pareira, 62 

Patagonia, game in, 376; Indians 
of, 376, 377; Indians of, mission- 
ary work among, 369; national 
park project in, 368; scenery of, 
375, 376; travel conditions in, 
374; see also Argentina, Pampa 

Paulistas, early explorations of, 95- 
97, 483; industrial progress of, 
40, 85, 98-102; slave raids of, 485, 
486 

Paz, Jose Maria, 234 

Pearson, F. S., 66 

Peccaries, 462 

Pedro II, Dom, of Brazil, 42, 43, 72 

Pelee, volcano, 20 

Penitentes, peaks, 269 

Peons in Chile, 292 

Pereira, Duarte Coelho, quoted, 51, 
52 
20 



INDEX 



Perez Rosales Pass in the Andes, 

347 
Pemainbuco, city of, 52 
Piauhi, Paulista exploration of, 96 
Pichincha, Battle of, 273 
Piranha fish, 417, 418 
Pizarro, Francisco, 3, 21, 226 
Plant life, in Brazilian jungle, 477, 

478 ; on Pampa, 175, 176 
Plaza, Nicanor, 284 
Poles in Brazil, 107, 108 
Portenos, 153 
Porto Alegre, German settlement of, 

118-120, 122 
Porto do Campo, village, 461-466 
Porto Segiiro, 39 
Potato cultivation in Chile, 307 
Pottery, ancient Indian, 204 
Poya Indians, 369, 377 
Prado, Joao Leme do, 479-481 
Printing in Paraguayan missions, 

396, 397 
Puelche Indians, 369, 377 
Puerto Militar, 381 
Puerto Murtinho, 421 
Puerto Varas, convent school in, 

33S; German breakfast to our 

party in, 336-339 
Pueyrredon, Juan Martin, 271, 414 

(note) 
Puntiagudo Mountain, 344 
Putumayo Indians, 4S6 (note) 



^^Quebracho tree, 155 

Quesada, Gonsalo Ximenes de, 3, 21, 

96, 226 
Quichua language in Argentina, 

202 
Quinta Normal Park in Santiago, 

282 
Quiroga, dictator, 412 



Quito, Paulistas in, 96 ; University 
of, 67 



Race mixture in Brazil, 39-43, 85, 
95, 98 

Racial differences in northern and 
southern Brazil, 10S 

Railways, in Argentina, 186, 200, 
381; in Brazil, 66, 101, 104, 105, 
122; in Chile, 300; in Paraguay, 
413; in Uruguay, 126, 127 

Rainfall in Chile, 275 

Rainy season, in Paraguay, 421, 
443; on the Pampa, 225, 240; 
travel during, in Brazil, 458, 459 

Raposo, Antonio, 96 

Reductions of Paraguay, advance- 
ment of Indians in, 395-400; 
foundation and object of, 394; 
Mameluco attacks on, 97, 395, 
405, 485 

Religious orders, schools of, in 
Buenos Aires, 160 

Religious spirit in South American 
armies, 213, 214, 259-261, 314 

Republican government in South 
America, 218, 413; abuse of, 412, 
413 

Rhea bird, 130, 131, 177 

Rice production in Brazil, 101 

Rio de Janeiro, Botanical Gardens 
of, 69, 70; butterflies of, 75; 
churches in, 66, 67; city improve- 
ments of, 61, 63-65; commercial 
development of, 52, 65, 66 ; docks 
of, 60, 61; electric power in, 65, 
66; fortifications of, 49, 71, 72; 
harbor of, 51, 52 ; mountain scen- 
ery of, 47-51, 70-79; origin of 
name of, 49; population of, 57, 
58 ; reception of our party in, 53, 



521 



INDEX 



54; sanitation in, 61-63; schools Rosario, 164, 173, 200; size and 



in, 67; streets of, 54-60; yellow 
fever in, 61, 62 

Rio de la Plata, 146, 147 

Rio de Mendoza valley, 269 

Rio Grande do Sul, cattle farming 
methods in, 110, 111; horsemen 
of, 117, 118; immigrant popula- 
tion of, 106-109; production of 
mate in, 111; subtropical climate 
of, 105-107 

Rio Maule, in Chile, 311, 317 

Riquelme, cruiser, 414 

Rivadavia, 161, 391 

River of Doubt, 420 

Rivera, town of, 125, 126 

Rivera, General, 142 

Rivers of Brazil, exploration of, 27, 
96, 459-461, 482, 484 

Rodrigues, Barbosa, 467 

Rodriguez, Jose Gaspar, 391, 410, 
411 

Rojas, Diego de, 226 

"Roman Peace" of Spanish rule, 
243 

Rondeau, General, 256 

Rondon, Colonel Candido Mariano 
da Silva, 419 

Roosevelt, Kermit, 46 

"Roosevelt South American Scien- 
tific Expedition," 15; see also 
South American Expedition 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 4-7; apprecia- 
tion of General San Martin by, 
152, 153; hunting expeditions of, 
438, 462, 463; on Monroe Doc- 
trine, in Montevideo, 142, 143, 
144; on Panama Canal, in San- 
tiago, 280-282 ; on reading, 16, 17 

Rosas, dictator, 412 

Rosales, Diego de, 296, 349, 350, 
356, 357 



commercial importance of, 201 
Rotos, 292, 331 
Rua do Ouvidor, in Rio de Janeiro, 

55, 56 
Rubber production in Brazil, 101 
Rubber production in Bolivar, 

abuses of, 486 (note) 



Sa, Estacio de, 67, 71 

Sa, Mem de, 67 

Saavedra, Hernando Arias de, 132, 
394 

Sacred Heart schools in Santiago, 
290, 291 

St. Eustatius Island, 22 

St. Francis de Sales, Society of, 
foundation of, 430; see also Sale- 
sian fathers 

St. John of God, priests of, in Ar- 
gentina, 220 

St. Joseph of Chambery, Sisters of, 
92 

St. Raphael, Salesian mission at, 
431 

St. Vincent Island, 20 

Salavarrieta, Policarpa, 212 

Salesian convent in Montevideo, 
138 

Salesian fathers, in Brazil, 432, 
433; in Colombia, 434; in Ecua- 
dor, 432; educational work of, 
433-437; in Tierra del Fuego, 431, 
432 

Salesian schools in Corumba, 429, 
434, 435 

Salesian trade school in Bahia, 
35 

Salines of Argentina, 225 

Salto Bello Falls, 493 

San Christobal, hill, 285 



522 



INDEX 



San Francisco, Church of, in Men- 
doza, 261 

San Marcos, University of, in Lima, 
67 

San Martin, Jose de, 152, 153, 213, 
23S, 255, 273; birthplace of, 391; 
Chilean campaign of, 263, 272, 
273; in Mendoza, 256, 260, 261; 
monument to, in Buenos Aires, 
152, 153, 262; monument to, in 
Mendoza, 256; organization of 
patriot anny by, 254-259; pas- 
sage of the Andes by, 262, 263, 
271-273 

San Miguel de Tueuman. See Tu- 
euman 

Santa Anna do Livramento, 125, 
126 

Santa Casa da Miserieordia Hospi- 
tal, in Sao Paulo, 92 

Santa Catharina, immigrant popu- 
lation of, 107-109; mate produc- 
tion in, 111; subtropical climate 
of, 105-107 

Santa Clara Island, 48 

Santa Cruz, 39 

Santa Fe, foundation of, 229 

Santa Lucia, hill, in Santiago, 279, 
283-286 

Santa Maria de Buenos Aires. See 
Buenos Aires 

Santiago, earthquakes in, 280; fine 
architecture of, 279, 280, 282; 
foundation of, 278; pleasure 
grounds of, 282-286; Roosevelt 
in, 280-282; scenery around, 285, 
286; schools in, 287-291; strong 
position of, 279; University of, 
67, 287 

Santiago del Estero, 201, 202 

Santo Domingo Church in Buenos 
Aires, 158 



Santo Domingo Church in Cordoba, 

230 
Santos, yellow fever in, 101 
Sao Bento College in Sao Paulo, 90, 

91 
Sao Francisco Church in Bahia, 35 
Sao Joao, fazenda, 440 
Sao Lowrenc^o River, 440, 441 
Sao Luiz de Caceres, Franciscan col- 
lege at, 455, 456; French nuns 
in, 457; reception at, 454; schools 
in, 455-457 
Sao Paulo, architectural beauty of, 
85, 86, 89, 90 ; Benedictine college 
in, 90, 91; charitable institutions 
of, 92; coffee culture in, 99, 100; 
education in, 90-92; foreign pop- 
ulation of, 89, 90, 92, 93; growth 
and prosperity of, 94, 95; in- 
crease of population in, 94; Jes- 
uit college in, 83, 84; medical re- 
search in, 86, 87 
Sao Salvador. See Bahia. 
Sao Sebastiao. See Rio de Janeiro. 
Sarcabana, weapon, 468 
Sarsfield Dalmacio Velez, 234 
Savoy Hotel in Tueuman, 207 
Scenery in South America, 1, 2, 5, 

363, 364 
Schaerer, Eduardo, 414 
Schmidt, Ulrie, 441-444 
Schools, in Bahia, 35; in Buenos 
Aires, 159, 160-164; in Cordoba, 
231-235; in Mendoza, 249, 250; 
in Montevideo, 138; in Rio de 
Janeiro, 67, 68; in Sao Luiz de 
Caceres, 455-457; in Santiago, 
287-291 
Schwab, Charles M., 303, 304, 381 
Scientific interest of South Amer- 
ica, 4, 5, 177, 178, 351, 383, 391, 
392, 420 
23 



INDEX 



Sepotuba River, 460, 463; palm 
trees along, 464-471; scenery 
along the, 464-466 

Sepp, Anthony, quoted, 180 (note) 

Serra Azul Mountains, 454 

Serra dos Orgaos, 50, 51 

Sertao of Brazil, 479-481; explora- 
tion of, 482, 484 

"Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium," 
468 

Sheep-raising, in Argentina, 182, 
184; in Uruguay, 137 

Sigg, Jacob, 13, 14, 18, 428; medi- 
cal work of, 498-500; usefulness 
of, 463 

Silveira, Francisco Berquo de, 55 

Sipe-Sipe, Battle of, 254, 255 

Skunk, 224 

Sky scenery on Paraguay River, 
448-451 

Slave-dealing in Brazil, 97, 395, 
484-486 

"Sleeping Giant," 48, 49 

Sloth, 453 

Snake birds, 452 

Snake-bites, treatment for, in Brazil, 
87, 88 

Sociedad de Beneficencia, in Buenos 
Aires, 161 

Sociology, study of, in Chile, 293 

Solano, San Francisco, 425 

Solis, Juan Diaz de, 149, 388, 501 

Soufriere, 20 

Sousa, Thome de, 33 

South America, land owners in, 298 ; 
eonquistadores in, 2, 3, 21, 22, 
361, 362, 370, 501; Dominican 
missions in, 394; Franciscan mis- 
sions in, 394; French nuns in, 
338, 339, 457; Maria Ausiliatriee 
Sisters in, 437; missionary ex- 
ploration of, 350, 357-359, 362, 



370, 483-488; Salesian fathers in, 
436, 437; scientific interest of, 4, 
5, 177, 178, 351, 383, 391, 392, 
420 ; travel conditions in, 66, 104, 
105, 200, 300, 342, 348, 385, 386; 
war of independence in, see War 
of Independence 

South American commerce, 28, 29, 
36, 37, 45, 46, 52, 53, 164, 170, 
301-305, 381, 382; early Spanish 
monopoly of, 238; effect of Pan- 
ama Canal on, 303, 304; early 
Spanish route for, 239, 240 

South American Expedition, animal 
collecting of, 428, 438, 462, 473; 
books and reading of, 16-19; 
equipment for, 11-13, 18; itin- 
erary for, 103, 104, 173, 385; 
organized, 8-14 

South American literature, value of 
missionary records to, 370-372, 
397, 404, 405, 488, 489 

South American opinion on Roose- 
velt, 6, 7 

South American patriots, treatment 
accorded to, 273 

South American revolutions, bad ef- 
fect of, 412, 413 

South American scenery, 1, 2, 5, 
363, 364 

Spaniards in Buenos Aires, 169, 170 

Spanish colonial policy in South 
America, 238-243 

Spanish eonquistadores in South 
America. See Conquistadores 

Statia Island, 22 

Steamship lines in Chile, 300 

Stock farms, in Argentina, 180-184 ; 
in Brazil, 110; in Uruguay, 131- 
136 

Storms, Araueanian belief concern- 
ing, 318, 319 



524 



INDEX 



Sugar industry, in Argentina, 209; 
in Brazil, 36 

Sugar Loaf Mountain, 47, 48; pic- 
nic on, 70, 71 

Swiss colonists in Uruguay, 136, 137 



Talcahuano, naval school at, 312 

Tapajos River, 460 

Tapir, 453, 462 

Tapirapuhan village, 472 

Taylor, Hugh, 105 

Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, 166; 

banquet to our party in, 170 
Techado Mountain, 344, 346 
Temperature at the equator, 25, 26 
Termite ants, 488, 491, 492 
Texeira, 96 

Thayer-Ojeda, Tomas, 296 
Thays, M., 151, 153, 156 
Tierra del Fuego, Salesian fathers 

in, 430-432 
Tijuca Mountain, 50, 51 ; ascent of, 

74, 77 
Timber production, in Brazil, 106; 

in Chile, 334 
Tipa tree, 155 
Toba Indians, 424, 425 
Tobacco, exportation of, from 

Brazil, 36; production of, in 

Brazil, 101 
Toclos los Santos Lake, mountain 

scenery around, 343-346 
Toribio, Santo, Bishop, 394 
Travel conditions in the Andes, 342, 

348, 349; in Argentina, 200, 385, 

386 ; in Brazil, 104, 105, 474, 475 ; 

in Chile, 300, 342; in Uruguay, 

126, 127 
Trejo y Sanabria, Fernando de, 

Bishop, 233, 394 
Trees, of Argentina, 155, 156; of 



Brazil, 69, 70, 106, 107, 464, 465- 
471 ; of Brazil, dense growth of, 
in jungle, 477, 478; giant size of, 
in the Andes, 349 

Tronador Mountain, 344-346, 364 

Tropical birds, 465, 466 

Tucuman, 173, 174, 200; agricul- 
tural college in, 210, 211; ancient 
Indian civilization in, 202-204; 
Battle of, 212, 213; colonial and 
modern building's of, 205-207; 
commerce of, under Spanish rule, 
240; congress of, 214-220, 236; 
conquistadores in, 229; founda- 
tion of, 211; fruit-growing in, 
210; increase of native popula- 
tion in, 205; living conditions in, 
209, 210; scenery around, 207, 
208; sugar industry in, 208 

Tufa beds of Rio de Mendoza val- 
ley, 269 

Tupi Indians, 393 

Tupi language, Jesuit work on, 84 

Turks in Patagonia, 378 



United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, 
congress of, 214-220, 236; see 
also War of Independence 

Universities of South America, 67, 
138, 159, 232-235, 287 

Urucumacuan, gold mines of, 484 

Uruguay, absence of Indians in, 
130 ; agriculture in, 131 ; animals 
of, 130, 131; beef industries in, 
134-136; cattle farming in, 131- 
136; flowers of, 129; Gauchos 
of, 129, 130; horses of, 137; liv- 
ing conditions in, 127, 128; mut- 
ton production in, 137; popula- 
tion of, 127, 128; prairie lands 
of, 127; sheep raising in, 137 



525 



INDEX 



Uspallata Pass in the Andes, 257, 

262-264, 267, 268 
Utiarity village, 493; Indians of, 

496-500 
Utiarity Falls, 494-496 



Valdivia, Germans in, 332 

Valdivia, Pedro de, 2, 3, 226, 229; 
cities founded by, 317; invasion 
of Chile by, 276-278, 317-322, 324, 
325; statue of, in Santiago, 284 

Valley of Eden in Uruguay, 128, 
129 

Valparaiso, buccaneer attacks on, 
299; commercial importance of, 
299, 301, 302; earthquakes in, 
299; foreigners in, 300 

Value of palms in Brazil, 468, 469 

Vampire bats, 473, 474 

Van Noort, Oliver, 299 

Vega, Garcilaso de la, 203, 296 

Vergara, Valdez, 296 

Vespucci, Amerigo, 31 

Vicuna, Carlos Moria, 296 

Vicuna, 376 

Vicuna wool, 204 

Villegaignon, Chevalier de, 71, 72 

Virgin Mary, statue of, on San 
Christobal Hill, 285 

Von Ihering, Dr., 86 



War of Independence, Catholic 
clergy in, 218-223, 236, 237, 258; 



in Argentina, 152, 158, 159; in 
Chile, 263, 272, 273; passage of 
the Andes in, 262, 263, 271-273; 
women in, 212, 254, 255 

War of the Triple Alliance, 411, 
412 

Washington, George, 24 

West Indian scenery, 19, 20, 22, 23 

Wheat, exportation of, in Argen- 
tina, 200, 201 

Wheelwright, William, monument 
to, in Valparaiso, 300 

Wild fig vine, 478 

Wine, production of, in Argentina, 
251, 252; in Brazil, 106; in Chile, 
306, 307 

"Woman in White," 48 

Women, in charitable work in 
Buenos Aires, 161, 162; in chari- 
table work in Chile, 297; in War 
of Independence, 212, 254, 255 

Wool production in Uruguay, 137 



Xarque, production of, in Brazil, 
118 



Yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro, 61, 
62; in Santos, 101 



Zarate, Don Juan Ortiz de, 182 
Zoological Gardens of Buenos 
Aires, 156 



(1) 



I 



FOLLOWING THE GONQUISTADORES 

Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena 

By H. J. Mozans, A. M., Ph. D. Illustrated. 8vo, 
cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. Price $3.00 net. By 
mail $3.20. 

"His pages breathe the poetry of travel, the romance of Sir 
John Mandeville, tempered by the moderation of scientific research. 
This is a very model of a travel book, and the author is to be 
congratulated on a result that will insure a wide public for the 
promised sequel." — The World, London, England. 

"The book is beyond question the most valuable of all the 
books on South America which has appeared. It is as interesting 
as a novel, full of entertaining anecdote and of real value to 
the student. It contains some maps and excellent illustrations from 
photographs." — The Call, San Francisco, Cal. 

"This is a remarkably interesting book, leading us through a 
region little known to the majority of English travelers, and 
possessing, in consequence, that charm of novelty in which works 
of the same description are occasionally deficient." — The Standard, 
London, England. 

"The reader will find this trip with the author, "Up the 
Orinoco and Down the Magdalena," as agreeable and instructive 
as a personally conducted visit to the heart of the Andes." — 
.Evening Transcript, Boston, Mass. 

"This volume, remarkable alike for its instructive qualities 
and the excellent composition, will open a vista of delight to 
the reader who relishes travel." — The News, Charleston, S. C. 

"Dr. Mozans sees the country with the trained and experienced 
eye of a world traveler and with the well stocked mind of the 
lover of literature. The past is linked with the present, the 
unknown with the known, and poetically appreciated in a way 
that is most delightful." — The Tribune, Chicago, 111. 

"The author, a traveler of many years of experience, who 
has explored strange corners of the globe in every zone, com- 
bines with accurate observation and a facile power of description 
a knowledge of history that enables him to illuminate his work 
with something of the romance that attaches to the tales of the 
conquistadores in whose trail he followed on this journey. The 
resulting book is one that gives the reader a complete new set of 
impressions and ideas concerning Venezuela and Columbia and the 
great rivers that water these still unsettled lands." — The Times Star, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

"Not since the appearance of Humboldt's "Personal Narrative 
of Travels in the Equinoctial Regions of America" has the fertile 
and romantic region of Tierra Firma — the scene of the exploits 
of some of this most illustrious of the Conquistadores — been so 
fully and so vividly described as by Doctor Mozans in his in- 
structive and fascinating volume "Up the Orinoco and Down the 
Magdalena." — Bulletin of the Pan-American Union. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 

527 -———-————— — — — . 



FOLLOWING THE CONQUISTADORES 

Along the Andes and Down the Amazon 

By H. J. Mozans, A.M., Ph.D. With an Intro- 
duction by Theodore Roosevelt. Illustrated. 
8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. Price $3 50 net. 
By mail $3.70 

"It was a great project and a grand journey, but we do not 
recall any writer who could describe it so delightfully as Dr. Mozans. 
He has not only an irresistible literary charm, but he is so saturated 
with knowledge of what he writes about that all he writes has an 
irresistible interest." — The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland. 

"Readers of Dr. Mozans' book have been impressed by the 
remarkable, almost amazing, erudition shown in it. It has also a 
modernity that is unusual in scholarly persons. Dr. Mozans 
seems to have been everywhere and studied everything. His 
especial interest in life has been thoroughly to acquaint himself 
with the history, antiquities and people, past and present, of 
northern South America." — The Literary Digest, New York City. 

"Dr. Mozans writes English after our own style, and has a 
point of view half philosophical and half poetic. He is highly 
sensitive to the mystery of the dead civilizations of the Andean 
plateaux, as well as to the abounding life of the modern States, 
and the book generally is the pleasantest account of South America 
we have encountered for a considerable time." — The Standard, 
London, England. 

"To read his book is not only to travel with him to strange 
places but also to be steeped in good literature." — The Record- 
Herald, Chicago, 111. 

"Great learning is often allied with great simplicity. It is so 
in the case of Dr. Mozans. He is bubbling over with information 
about the achievements of the Spanish conquistadores and the 
subsequent history of the lands over which they established their 
sway." — The Field, London, England. 

"Whether Dr. Mozans' volume is resorted to for solid in- 
formation or mere entertainment it will well repay the reading." — 
The New York Times. 

"A book which every traveler to South America, especially 
every traveler to the west coast of the continent, will wish to 
have in his handbag." — Bulletin of the Pan-American Union. 

"This is a delightful book from every standpoint." — Ex-Pres- 
ident Roosevelt, in the Introduction to Dr. Mozans' book. 

"Like the well-known works of Waterton and Humboldt on 
South America, the two books by Dr. Mozans are sure to have a 
permanent value and to be recognized as soon as known, as 
authorities on the countless subjects discussed in their illuminating 
pages with such fairness and scholarship." — The Freeman's Journal, 
New York City. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 

~S28 



A TIMELY VOLUME OF UNUSUAL INTEREST 

Woman in Science 

By H. J. Mozans, A.M., Ph.D., Frontispiece, 8vo., 
Cloth, $2.50 net. By mail $2.64. 

"A historical survey of the higher education of women that is 
almost monumental in design. . . . The conclusion of the admir- 
able survey is inspiring for its breadth and idealism." 

— The Review of Reviews, New York City. 

"All who are interested in the progress and advancement of 
women will be inspired by this exhaustive treatment by Dr. 

Mozans -" — The Literary Digest, New York City. 

"Dr. H. J. Mozans's present volume, 'Women in Science,' is assur- 
edly no labor of the market. Its pages are the outcome of long 
days at the University of Athens, of months at Bologna, Padua and 
Pavia, of years of delving into the recorded lives of the great 
women of civilization. . . . But he closes his scholarly and most 
courteous volume with a freshened hope." 

— The Times, New York City. 
"The book marks an epoch in the struggle of women for recog- 
nition in the educational world and is worthy of a place in the library 
of every cultivated man and woman in the land." 

— The Evening Telegram, Portland, Oregon. 
"It is a much more refreshing story than the story of the militant 
struggle to vote. It wakens not mere sympathy but deep respect." 
— The Knickerbocker Press, Albany, N. Y. 
"The present book is emphatically timely, dealing as it does with 
the right of woman to the opportunity to develop her life precisely as 
the man has the right to develop his. . . . This book is a store- 
house of facts and arguments for all who in this struggle take the 
side of reason and justice." _ Th( , Outhok> New Yo rk City. 

"Writers and orators who deal with feminism in its chameleonic 
aspects will want to read Dr. H. J. Mozans's 'Woman in Science.' " 

— The Public Ledger, Philadelphia, Penna. 

"After outlining woman's capacity for scientific purposes, the 
book takes up, step by step, her achievements in all the departments 
of pure science from the earliest times to the present. An inspira- 
tion for those interested in the cause of women."' 

— Current Opinion, New York City. 

"For those directly interested in the cause of woman it is a foun- 
tain of inspiration." __ Thg Constitufionj Atlanta, Ga. 

"The book will be especially valuable to those who are directly 
interested in the 'Cause of Woman,' and who wish argumentative 
ammunition for the fray." _ SL Paul D l spatch> St . Paul p; onee r Press. 

"He has written a wonderful book which every woman who under- 
takes to forward the feminist cause should read. . . . The book 
Dr. Mozans has written about them has the romantic interest of a 
novel and the inspiration of a battle hymn!" 

— The Journal, Madison, Wisconsin. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 

535 



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